Just Doing Business
by hippielicious
Summary: Erik didn't want to work with humans. But Stevie Carson gave him an offer that he had to accept. Erik learns about the passion that she has for the mutant cause and begins to see her in a different light. Could their relationship develop beyond that of a business relationship? Erik X OC
1. Chapter 1

Erik sat quietly on a park bench in an empty park, waiting for Azazel. As he did so, he fiddled with three small metal marbles in his hands, making them change shapes and levitate around each other in interesting ways until the other mutant returned. With a small _crack_ Azazel appeared, giving Erik a small smile. "I have found some interesting lodgings."

"Interesting how?" He was not inclined to have to worry about such matters when there were much more important matters at hand.

"I believe the phrase is 'killing two birds with one stone', is it not? It's not ideal, but it should work. There is a very large home – more like a mansion – about forty miles outside of New York City. It is completely free to live there, meaning that our funds may be used in other ways, and there will be other mutants there," he said, glee in his eyes.

"Other mutants?" This entire situation was beginning to put Erik ill at ease.

"Yes. The mansion serves as free, safe, lodging for mutants until they can find work or someplace safe to live. I did not meet the owner, but the two women who were running the home were both mutants. Everything checked out. The only downside would be privacy, but I was told that something may be arranged with the owner, who is apparently looking us up right now."

"Looking us up?" Erik asked irritably.

"Criminal history, so I was told. However, they said that most things could be overlooked."

"Did it not occur to you that your association with Shaw could be construed as a threat? I don't think they are going to welcome the mutants who tried to start nuclear war into their home."

"Maybe not, but I was guaranteed that no matter what our criminal history was, that no authorities would be called. We are no worse off for having tried. Should I take you there?"

Erik sighed. "I suppose. We don't have very many options available."

Within a matter of seconds, Erik was standing in front of the enormous mansion, waiting for Azazel to bring Emma Frost with him so she could also inspect. Soon, the other two were standing with him and they were greeted by two women who were clearly sisters. With dark hair and copper skin, they definitely appeared as if they were Native American. "I'm assuming you are the mutant whom Azazel referred to as Magneto?" asked the taller one. Erik nodded. "My name is Dianna and this is my sister Allegra. The owner, Ms. Carson, will be here soon to discuss your situation, although I have to say that you're lucky she has considered taking you in at all considering four of the members of your party are wanted by the U.S. government for involvement in that missile crisis and the other two are considered persons of interest by both the CIA and the FBI."

"You certainly didn't waste any time," he replied tersely. His body tensed, ready for a fight.

"Ms. Carson prefers to be thorough, and that's what I am for," Allegra replied coolly. "There is no need to get anxious. Regardless of whether or not we decide to allow you to stay, you are free to go and as I told your friend: we will not be calling anyone to tell them that you've been here."

"She's telling the truth," Emma threw in nonchalantly. "This place is everything that they say it is: a safe haven for mutants who need help. Allegra does the background checks."

"So what does Ms. Carson expect in return for giving all these people a home?" Erik asked. His first policy was not to trust anyone and he wasn't about to change that now.

"She prefers that they look for a job, but it's not a requirement. She'll often give mutants positions within her company. After all," Dianna explained "Ms. Carson owns Carson Technologies. She is not in any way lacking in funds, so she can afford to look at each situation on a case-to-case basis, just as she is doing with yours." They heard a car pulling up into the drive. "Here she is now."

A brunette in a power suit stepped out of the expensive black Cadillac and for a few moments, appeared to be the most suave woman on the planet, until Erik noticed the fact that she was walking completely barefoot towards them and was only about five foot one. "Alright, so which one of you am I going to discuss this situation with?" she asked, immediately taking command.

"That would be me," Erik replied.

"So four of you were involved in a plot to start a nuclear war?" she asked casually.

"That is correct."

"And just why were they trying to start a nuclear war, Allegra?" Carson asked.

"It was apparently part of some plot to destroy all of humanity and leave only the mutants."

"How do you know that?" asked Erik.

Carson replied for Allegra. "Allegra's ability allows her to see the history of an object or person if she comes into physical contact with them. I'm assuming she shook one of your hands. Now, you have to understand why I would not be eager to be housing wanted men and woman under a roof that I own." He nodded. "Okay, so what kind of business are you all in right now? And please tell the truth, it will be much faster than having to verify with Allegra all the time."

Erik nodded slowly, understanding that he did indeed have to tell the truth. "We are currently preparing for war against humanity. They will eventually turn on us, and I do not intend for us all to be exterminated because of the fear that the humans hold. We are the future and I am trying to recruit and protect my fellow mutants."

She raised her eyebrows in interest but before she could say anything, Emma spoke. "She's not a mutant, Erik. She's the only one here who isn't."

The tension in the air immediately intensified. "Thank you for stating something everyone here apart from all of you already knew," Carson replied sarcastically, not nearly as concerned with this revelation as the three new mutants were. "Your idea intrigues me, although you can probably guess why I may be a little uncomfortable of the idea of a war between humanity and mutants. I am, however very interested in protecting mutants from humans and trying to prevent war while I'm at it. Humanity is a threat to mutants, which I why I had this place built."

"Why are you so interested in mutants?" asked Erik.

"I profit off of them," she replied point blank. "With mutants inside my company, I save a lot of money and increase efficiency. Not only that but by researching them, I've also managed to pioneer some enormous leaps in technology. Solar power and nuclear power have now been put decades ahead by my research which puts me eons ahead of my competitors. I'm a businesswoman. That's it. I think that mutants and their abilities can be useful, so I see no reason to terrorize them." Her green eyes stared at Magneto and he felt as if she were telling the truth. "I feel as if we can help each other, Mr. Lensherr, so I am willing to offer you housing here, as well as a facility to operate from in New York, for the time being. Try not to make any messes and I guarantee that I will help your cause, while still benefitting myself."

"How do I know I can trust you?" he asked guardedly.

"Bolivar Trask, my business competitor, has made his anti-mutant position very clear and I have it on good authority that he is beginning to look into technology that would be used to destroy mutants. Obviously any type of technology that he intends to design is very far away from being operational, but it would be in both of our interests to prevent this technology from every becoming reality. If we remove Trask Industries from the picture, then both of us will profit. I also don't like Trask personally, so ruining him and razing his company to the ground would be very enjoyable for me. Do we have a deal, Mr. Lensherr? You are allowed to walk away at any moment as none of this is legally binding, but you would be walking away from an amazing opportunity."

Erik turned to Emma. She nodded, confirming that Carson meant what she said. Erik shook hands with Carson. "Agreed. I will hold you to your end of the deal."

"I'll hold it up with pleasure," Carson replied. The gleeful gleam in her eyes told Erik she was telling the truth. "Now, feel free to get the other members of your party, and I will show you to your rooms."

As she showed Erik to his room, she was still all business. "Before too long you and I will be discussing strategies because I think we both need to be on the same page as far as how to approach this matter is concerned. Oh, and I don't think I've been properly introduced. My name is Stevie Carson and it is a pleasure doing business with you." Before he could reply, she was off. He didn't like the idea of working with a human, but she appeared to be genuine and if nothing else he figured he could rely on a businesswoman to do something she considered to be profitable.


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning, Erik was up early along with the other members of his brotherhood and they went downstairs to see Stevie already awake and waiting for them, sipping coffee. "Good morning, Mr. Lensherr. Glad you see that you are so eager to get started. First, we commute to New York for you to see where you will be working from, and then you and I will be having a private meeting to discuss strategy." She didn't wait for an answer and instead began walking at a brisk pace towards the cars that would be taking them. The commute itself was mostly quiet, though Stevie was blasting music from the radio and clearly enjoying what was for her a peaceful drive to work.

They arrived at a warehouse and as Erik stepped out of the car, he realized how perfect it would be for him. It was large, reasonably private, and so bare that he could make whatever alterations he pleased. "There is a lot of metal inside," Stevie assured him with a smirk. "Now, it's time for you and me to have a chat. We're going to my office."

He followed her to the Cadillac and she drove them to an enormous skyscraper: Carson Technologies. As she stepped inside, everyone inside the building turned to her as she took on the commanding aura that he had seen the previous night. After a few minutes, they reached her office on the top floor where he saw her secretary waiting for her.

"Anything particularly important today, Rosemary?" Stevie asked.

"No, there are a few leasing issues that need to be looked at, but things are running smoothly as usual," Rosemary assured her.

"Excellent. No meetings today?"

"None."

"Great. Make sure that Mr. Lensherr and I are not disturbed. This meeting is to be kept quiet. No one is to know that he has been here." Her secretary nodded as if the request were the most normal in the world.

They stepped into her office and Erik sat on one of the chairs in front of her desk as she sat in her desk, quickly glancing at the paperwork that had been laid there for her by Rosemary. She offered him coffee. "This isn't any of that instant shit. This is high quality coffee." He nodded cautiously. As he sipped the coffee, he did have to admit that it had an excellent flavor. "I never believed in cream or sugar," she mused. "If it's good coffee, then you shouldn't need to mask the flavor with anything else." She sipped her own coffee quietly for a moment before getting to business. "Our fundamental goals are not so different, you know. We both want mutants to survive. Ultimately, that's all that matters. However, your methods are incredibly ineffective. Making a scene is not going to help your cause."

"What do you suggest? That I try to convince all the humans that mutants aren't going to harm them? That we all try to live in harmony together?" His tone was mocking, but Stevie ignored it.

"Of course not. People are stupid. They're not going to leave mutants alone until they have to, so we have to get the law on our side. If we have congress in our pocket, then we have all that we need to shape this country's policy on mutants. Other countries will follow the U.S. in their policies."

"If people are so stupid, then how do you intend to convince congress?"

"As I told you, I'm a businesswoman and have made enormous profits because of mutants. My plan is to discuss this was other businessmen and show them the profits that they can make as well – spread the wealth so to speak. American business is one of the most powerful forces in this country: if you have business on your side then you have half the battle won already. Those businessmen will hire lobbyists and those lobbyists will convince congressmen to vote whichever way we please on the subject of mutants. I also have a plan to fund the campaign of any official elected to congress who is pro-mutant. The key to winning this war is to win it before it even comes to war, Mr. Lensherr. This will be done so quietly, so secretly that before the American people are even aware of what is going on, the United States will have created a pro-mutant policy that cannot be reversed."

"You've clearly given this matter a lot of thought. You expect me to believe that you're only doing this because you are making money?"

"You said last night that mutants are the future and I believe you are right. This world is going to shit and I think that mutants offer a lot of potential solutions to all the crises that exist. From energy to the distribution of natural resources to the problems we face in the nuclear age, I believe that the issues plaguing this earth can be solved by mutants. They are the future of the human race – our salvation, so to speak. They bring problems with them, of course, but if those problems are addressed early enough, then both humans and mutants can come out of this on top."

"Why should we save the human race? We could allow you to destroy yourselves and that would leave the world for us."

For the first time since he had met her, Stevie's face softened a little, taking on a tone that was a little less businesslike. "Maybe it is just wishful thinking, but I want this to work. I can promise to you that so long as you are working with me, you and every other mutant associated with me will be safe, so long as you lay low."

"Laying low is not my forte," he replied stiffly.

She laughed. "That much is incredibly obvious, but you have to agree that my plan is a sound one. We can influence policy if we work quietly and President Kennedy is arranging a meeting next month to discuss the events that occurred during the missile crisis. I can get into that meeting and make my position to him."

He stared long and hard at her before nodding. "It is possible that this could work, but the government doesn't want to work with mutants. The government ordered that we be fired on during the missile crisis, only moments after we had prevented nuclear war and saved them from Shaw."

"I know," she said softly. "I am sorry that they chose to address the issue in such a way and I intend to prevent any such thing from every happening again. Please. If you follow my plan, things can fall into place."

"I'm going to continue recruiting and preparing," he insisted. She nodded, as if she expected that. "How long do you intend to carry out this plan?"

"I hope to have accomplished the majority of my plans before the next election."

"That's a very short amount of time," he reminded her.

She smirked. "I do very well with short deadlines. Besides, I now have a lot more free time than I used to. I mostly just hire people to do the day to day work."

"So nice that you are concerned with the mutant plight, but you have no idea what it's like to be persecuted as we are. I don't want my brothers and sisters to have to wait for freedom."

"I'm a woman running a multi-billion dollar company in 1962. You're completely right," she said harshly. "I have absolutely no idea what it's like to walk into a room where every single person feels hostile towards you." Her green eyes that had been a little soft only moments ago had now hardened – unhappy with what Erik had said. "Discrimination exists everywhere, Mr. Lensherr, and I intend to fight it. Will you be fighting with me, or making more messes that I will have to clean up as I try to obtain freedom for mutants?"

"Fine. I will join you, for now. What is our first objective?"

"I have three things I'd like to accomplish before the year is out, and let me remind you that it is now November. First, I need to get on the list for that meeting next month that President Kennedy has arranged. Second, I need to begin speaking with my fellow businessmen about my objectives with the mutant community. Third, I need to break into Trask Industries and see what they're up to. I may need your help with the first and third objectives."

He nodded. "My team can do that."

"Alright, other objectives will only be created once we see how these go. I have no idea what we're working against right now and I can guarantee that Trask will be at that meeting with the president."

"Why don't we just kill Trask? It would be neater."

"But then I don't get to see the light leave his eyes as his business is destroyed and pro-mutant legislation is passed in congress," she said, with a slightly sinister gleam in her eye.

"You are a ruthless one, aren't you?" Erik didn't want to say it out loud, but he was very impressed with her and he was beginning to think that she may actually be a pleasure to work with.

"Ruthless and proud," she declared. "I can't be anything but ruthless if I want to be taken seriously and given respect. The second I show any weakness I will immediately lose everything that I have worked for. Now, get on your assignments, so that we can accomplish something

* * *

"Mystique, how would you like to break into Trask industries?" Erik asked.

"I would love to. I just need to know why we're working with that woman. She's not one of us."

He nodded. "I know that this isn't ideal, but she has good plans and she is trying to help mutants so at this point we cannot afford to be choosy."

"Fine," she said irritably. "What do you want from Trask?"

"Everything you can find. Anything that could be considered useful to Ms. Carson so that she can destroy Trask. Look for anything that could be considered a threat to the mutant community." Mystique nodded and left to find the necessary information. "Azazel and Emma, I need you two to look into a meeting that will be held at the Whitehouse next month. It is concerning President Kennedy's policy towards mutants and Ms. Carson needs to be on the list of those attending." The other two nodded and Azazel teleported away with Emma.

He turned to Riptide and Angel. "I'm afraid that your talents are of little use, for the time being. Ms. Carson intends to use stealth to obtain our objectives."

* * *

By the end of the business day, everything Stevie had asked for from Magneto had been accomplished and he supposed that he should share the information with Stevie. As he and the others left the warehouse, he saw her black Cadillac waiting for him.

"Take the other car back. I'll be speaking with Ms. Carson." He quickly stepped into the Cadillac, leaving his teammates a little dumbfounded that he would not be joining them.

He turned to the brunette. "The objectives have been accomplished. Care to hear what we know about Trask?"

"Yes," she said with her signature smirk.

"Trask is working on machines for hunting mutants, just as you said. Currently, he has a device capable of identifying those with the mutant gene, and that's about it. It looks like it will be about ten years until the technology is viable."

"Anything in his personal life that could be used to ruin him?"

"Mystique believes that his children are mutants, but we're not sure."

Stevie raised her eyebrows in surprise. "The irony is killing me. However, I was thinking more along the lines of ruining his reputation. Has he killed anyone?" she asked casually.

"Not that we know of."

"Damn. I could have used that, for sure. Am I on the list for the meeting next month?" He nodded. "Excellent. We are going to make an amazing team, Mr. Lensherr." She gave him one of the first genuine smiles – not a smirk – that he had seen since for meeting her and he had to admit, it would somewhat dazzling.

"What is the plan now?"

"Well, for now there is nothing we can do to ruin Trask in the near future, but I will take care of him if it is the last thing I do. I've arranged for a meeting with some other businessmen next week to discuss mutants, so our goals after that depend entirely on how that meeting goes. Tomorrow I intend to spend most of the day planning my pitch. So, for the time being, you can do whatever the hell you want."

"That includes recruiting from those who live at the mansion?"

"If you so choose, but most of them aren't interested in fighting. Most the mutants who pass through just want to be safe from humans and blend in with a secure job and a good life."

"They want to be accepted by the humans," he scoffed. He made no attempts to hide his scorn.

"Fear can make people do a lot of things. But I see no shame in them wanting a happy, normal life, though I myself would never choose that."

"You don't want a happy, normal life?"

She shook her head adamantly. "That's boring. I want to live an exciting life and I think I've done a pretty good job so far. I'm not about to change that. Thank you for being so efficient today. Things are beginning to slip into place."

"You can thank me by keeping mutants safe."

The rest of the car ride was spent in complete silence, but Erik was beginning to feel comfortable working with Stevie. She was pleasant to work with and didn't believe in bullshit, which he appreciated. Beyond that, he couldn't help but feel a little surge of respect for her and her accomplishments. When she was talking about her plans, he began to almost feel a glimmer of hope for mutants and hope was a very foreign concept to him.

It was dark now Erik stepped out of the Cadillac. Before he left, he turned to Stevie. "Thank you, Ms. Carson, for taking this matter so seriously and for the time you are putting into it." He was not used to thanking people, so it felt awkward for him to say.

"You can thank me once I've actually accomplished something. The meeting next week is going to be tricky. And call me Stevie. Everyone else who lives in the house does, at least to my face."

"Alright, Stevie. You may call me Erik, if you like."

"Alright, Erik. I won't be seeing you again until after the meeting next week, but I promise that as soon as I've done that, I will contact you to let you know what is going on."

Erik continued to watch as the Cadillac pulled out of the large driveway. He was very eager for the next time she would contact him and he was not entirely sure that it was only because she would be telling how the plan was going.


	3. Chapter 3

Stevie sat in her large office, hoping that this would go well. "As I'm sure many of you are aware, there will be a meeting at the Whitehouse in three weeks' time to determine what their official policy is going to be towards mutants. Naturally, as a business community, we need to decide which way we want that decision to swing." She felt her heart rate rise a little as she looked at the uninterested looks on the faces of the men in the room. It would be a battle, just as she assumed it would be.

She took a deep, but silent breath, so no one would know how nervous she really was. "As many of you may _not _be aware, mutants can be an asset to the business community, and they are part of the reason why you gentlemen can't keep up with my profits."

She heard angry grumbling and suddenly Mr. Boyle shouted "What do you mean?"

"I mean, that because I employ mutants and do research on them, I am capable of making and saving a great deal of money. Many of you undoubtedly read about my new solar panels."

Peterson – one of the least unpleasant of the group – raised his eyebrows. "I was curious about the design."

"Last year I met a young man in Japan who had a very interesting mutation where he derived power from the sun. Although it took quite a bit of persuading, I eventually convinced him to give me a few tissue samples and after analyzing them, we had a breakthrough. However, the infinite possibilities for mutation mean infinite possibilities for us all to make money. If you employ a mutant with super intelligence, then they will be an asset. Mutants can also be used to speed up construction on buildings, or other important tasks."

"So that's how you fucking did it," Boyle grumbled.

"Well, maybe if you took your head out of your ass, you wouldn't be making such marginal profits," Stevie said irritably. "My point in this meeting is that we as a business community should support the mutants, because they can be useful to us."

"Why the hell would you tell us this?" someone asked.

"I figured you gentlemen needed a little help in order to keep up with me," Stevie quipped. "In all seriousness, if the government passes anti-mutant legislation, we all lose money, and I don't think that any of us want that, so we need to be proactive."

"What did you have in mind," asked Peterson.

"Well, we need to create a powerful mutant lobby so that we can keep mutants safe, and therefore keep our pocketbooks safe."

"I don't see Trask here," Andrews pointed out.

"Yes," she admitted. "Trask isn't here. He is anti-mutant. However, that brings me to another reason why we should support the mutants. I can't be the only person in this room who wants Trask to eat shit, so even if you don't do it for the money, do it for that priceless experience."

Suddenly, the air in the room began to change from the hostility she had felt before, to some support. All the men in the room may have hated her, but all of them hated Trask more. Besides, she had also given them a hint as to how to make more money, so if nothing else, that it least put her in their good graces. "By the time the Whitehouse meets to determine how they address this issue, I would like for us to be a formidable force supporting mutants." She could see the men in the room beginning to nod in their support.

"Wait, wait, wait, how do we know that we're actually going to make money off these mutants?" asked Boyle. "How do you even identify them?"

"I happen to make my support of mutants very clear, so most of them come to me, but if you'd like, I could send a few your way, if you can't figure it out yourself, Boyle," she said condescendingly. Boyle was an enormous pain in the ass. "Can I assume that I will have support from the majority of you gentlemen?" She tried not to show how much their support meant to her personally, because showing emotion was a sign of weakness that she could not afford to give them. She heard heard a lot of yeses in the crowd and her heart rate began to slow a little. As each of them left the meeting, she shook hands with all of them, thankful that she had managed to convince so many of them. Everything was going according to plan.

As the last of the men left her office, she closed the door and waited a moment before jumping up and down yelling "Fuck, yes!" Everything was falling into place, but now she had to start planning her presentation to Kennedy. It _had_ to be perfect so she could beat Trask. She knew that he would try to make his presentation impressive, so she had to make hers more impressive. She sat down on the couch in her office and began outlining the speaking points she would have.

* * *

Erik was pacing his room, waiting for a call from Stevie. He needed to know how the meeting had gone so he rushed downstairs and ran into Dianna. (Dianna had the ability to alter gravity fields and was currently reading on a levitating couch.) "Do you know when Stevie is supposed to finish her meeting and call?" It was already beginning to get dark and he knew that the meeting had been in the early afternoon. Was she avoiding telling him that the others hadn't agreed to join their cause?

"Stevie will call when she calls. She may have had other things to take care of." Dianna was clearly not interested in Erik's agitation.

"She said that she would call as soon as the meeting was over. What if something went wrong?"

"If I know anything about my sister, it is that she refuses to take 'no' for an answer. Everything probably went just as planned."

"Did you just say that Stevie is your sister?" Dianna nodded. "But you look nothing alike. You and Allegra are clearly sisters, but…"

"Well, I guess technically Stevie is only our half-sister, but our father had married my mother by the time Stevie was two, so we all grew up together. Our mother was Salish – an Indian tribe – so it makes sense that we would look very different from Stevie."

"Well, I suppose that's another reason why she is so adamant about the mutant cause. I was curious as to how she became so involved."

"I'd like to think so," Dianna said with a smile. "Stevie was always very protective and supportive of us."

Erik continued fidgeting before he decided that he couldn't take it anymore. "I'm going to find her."

He found Azazel relaxing in his room. "Azazel, take me to Carson Technologies."

Azazel nodded in response. "Sure, comrade."

When they arrived, Erik left Azazel at the entrance and went to the top floor, remembering where Stevie's office was. Once he reached the top floor, he noticed that Rosemary was no longer there and rushed into Stevie's office, hoping to find some sort of hint as to where she had gone. When he stepped in and turned on a light, he found Stevie asleep on the couch, glasses nearly falling off her face, and papers strewn around her. He glanced at the papers briefly and saw that they were plans for the meeting with Kennedy. Stress that he had not even been aware of was suddenly released and he let out a small breath of relief. Nothing had happened to her – she was safe. Now, all he had to do was wake her up.

He awkwardly shook her and she shot up, sending the papers and her glasses flying around the room. "Shit, I forgot to call," she mumbled. "I forgot to tell Rosemary that I wouldn't be spending the night at the office tonight."

"Do you always sleep here?" Erik asked as they began to gather the paper up.

"Three or four days a week. Typically, Rosemary doesn't bother to come in if I have the door closed. I always go home on Fridays, though, so she must have forgotten. I pulled an all-nighter so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that I passed out."

"I'm guessing you'd like to go home now?" She nodded in response, as she picked up her glasses and put them on. "Azazel can take you." She nodded again and carried her heels along with the papers she had been working on.

"Azazel, could you please take me to my house?" she asked, as they approached the red mutant outside. He nodded silently and within seconds they were all standing outside a very small home that Magneto had never seen before. It suddenly occurred to him that Stevie did not live in the same mansion that the mutants lived in. In fact, he had no idea where she lived. They could be in Virginia for all he knew.

"Shit, I need to tell you about the meeting," she said as she approached her door to unlock it.

"Azazel, you can go back without me, I think. Ms. Carson and I need to discuss strategy," he said quietly. Once again, Azazel nodded silently and complied, although he looked perplexed. Erik approached the house as well, eager once again to hear about what had occurred during the meeting.

Once they stepped inside and Stevie flipped on the light, he was surprised that the house was really very small, especially for a multi-billionaire. None of the furniture looked particularly expensive – in fact some of it looked as if it had been purchased at a thrift shop. "I don't know about you," Stevie said. "But I need a drink. Scotch okay?" He nodded quietly, continuing to look around the house. (Although in truth, he felt as if snooping was a more appropriate word.) In the rather small living room, he found a bookcase that had an entire shelf dedicated to pictures of Stevie with Dianna and Allegra dating back more than twenty years, by the looks of things. She also had a very impressive record collection that included The Beatles and Peter, Paul and Mary. Something he simply could not resist, though, was playing with the newton's cradle that was sitting on her coffee table. As he sat down, a very large, fluffy, ugly cat began to rub up against his pants, leaving its orange fur behind. He tried to brush the fur off and shoo the cat away, but didn't succeed in either or the endeavors.

Stevie came into the living room with the two scotches and noticed the cat bothering Erik. "Teddy, no," she gently scolded. The cat jumped onto the chair across the room, curling up on it and eyeing Erik with its squished face. "Sorry," she said before noticing that her newton's cradle was moving. "You didn't even touch it, did you?" He nodded with a smirk appearing on his face. She rolled her eyes, but did look as if she found his interest in the cradle at least a little humorous. "Okay, so the meeting went very well today with the exception of a few assholes. Thankfully, most of them hate Trask, so it wasn't very difficult convincing them to turn against him. Hopefully, in three weeks, they will have begun to make some demands for mutant rights. Now, I have three weeks to prepare my presentation for Kennedy and I have to create counter arguments to everything that Trask could ever possibly say. I'll need charts and statistics, because I know damn well that Trask is going to have them." Now she was beginning to get red in the face, becoming flustered over the idea of debating against Trask. Erik couldn't tell if she was scared for the showdown, excited for it, or some strange combination of the two.

He decided that now would be the time to share some important information with her. "An old friend of mine might be attending this meeting. I'm not sure if he'll speak, but he'll probably be there in some way or another."

"A friend?" her eyebrows came down, confused.

"Yes. He is a mutant and his name is Charles Xavier. He'll be opening a school for mutant children soon, so he is going to be curious about the outcome of this meeting."

She nodded slowly. "At least I know that there will be one friendly face there."

"I could send Emma in to…influence the voting."

She shook her head. "Someone may recognize her and even if they didn't, I wouldn't put it past Trask to bring that mutant detector of his to demonstrate to the President. I'll do this on my own."

Under normal circumstances, Erik wouldn't have trusted anyone at their word, but he felt confident leaving the mutant fate in her hands. If anyone could handle it, he was sure that she could. "I hope the meeting wasn't too much trouble."

She gave a small smile. "No more than usual. God, men can be such assholes. No offense."

He chuckled. "I can't entirely disagree with you. Especially if they were humans." He paused for a moment. "I didn't know that Dianna and Allegra were your sisters. I may not have been so hostile at first if I had known that," he said quietly.

"I shouldn't have had to explain myself to you. Besides, you eventually figured out that this wasn't part of some devious plot of mine to rid the world of mutants."

"Why did you pretend that it was just about the money? When we first met last week you said that the only reason you helped mutants was because you profit off of them."

"As if you would have believed me if I said I was doing it simply because it's the right thing to do. Plus, I do have a monetary motive to help mutants as well as the fact that my sisters are mutants. Besides, like I said, I shouldn't have to explain myself to anyone and I certainly wasn't going to try and explain my motives to a stranger."

He could see that this went well beyond what he had originally thought. "Something happened."

She looked up from her drink and nodded slowly. "We had to move around a lot when we were younger because of Dianna and Allegra. They didn't have a lot of control over their abilities – particularly Dianna – and sometimes they slipped up. When that happened, people became angry…violent, even. _Nobody_ should have to be afraid to be who they are, or experience the terror that my family felt for Dianna and Allegra. When my father died, I promised him that I would keep Dianna and Allegra safe. After I began making a lot of money, I decided that I would do it for other mutants as well and eventually the safe haven was born. But that mansion shouldn't be necessary. The sooner I can make mutants feel safe to be open about their abilities, the sooner they no longer have to hide, the happier I'll be."

Erik was beginning to feel warm, so he took off his jacket and then realized that Stevie could see his tattoo. She reached out carefully and gently ran her fingers over it. The tattoo spoke for itself and Stevie stared at him sadly, realizing at least a small part of the hell that had been his childhood. After a few moments of silence, he spoke up. "You're not going to say anything? Demand to hear the whole story?"

"There are no words for it and I'm not going to ask you to relive the experiences that gave you that tattoo." She was such a paradox. She was very demanding as far as her expectations for their mission were concerned, but in every other way, she was one of the least demanding people he had ever met. She expected nothing from her mutant tenants – no form of payment whatsoever. And, more important to Erik, she didn't act as if she were entitled to know his story, simply because she had told hers.

He decided to change the subject. "What was it like being the only one who wasn't a mutant?"

"I was really jealous of them for a long time," she admitted with shame. "I wanted to be able to make things levitate, or see the history of an object. I still do wish that I had a special ability, but I eventually came to realize that although my abilities aren't nearly as extraordinary as my sisters', that doesn't make them any less of a gift. Dianna and Allegra, as much as I love them, couldn't have built a company like Carson Technologies by the time they were thirty. Knowing that has made things a little easier." She paused for a moment. "I typically don't become this talkative until I've had at least five drinks. I'm not a very open person."

"Lucky for you, I'm feeling rather atypical tonight as well. Typically, I would pass harsh judgment, but not tonight. You're an extraordinary woman, Stevie."

Stevie stared at him as if she had no idea how to respond to such a compliment before pouring herself more scotch and downing it a little more quickly than was necessary.

Erik could no longer deny that he felt _something_ for Stevie. Whenever they spoke, he felt at ease and, for lack of a better word, good. The hope that she made him feel for the future was beyond words and he was beginning to wonder if he wasn't in some way addicted to these feelings that she gave him. He did still think that humans were inferior – at least so he thought – but Stevie was different. She was everything that he assumed humans could never be. Unclassifiable.

He began to lean in, knowing that the actions he intended to complete went against his own rhetoric, but the longer he looked at her, the less he began to care. Suddenly, and most certainly unexpectedly, she quickly kissed him then pulled away, nervously assessing his reaction. He decided to reciprocate the deed, which caused an enormous, enchanting smile to break out onto her face. "I never imagined this would happen," she whispered.

"In truth, neither did I. I'll get some flak for this."

"Screw them," she said as they continued.

"The way I see it, if I'm going to get my associates riled up over this, I may as well give them something to become riled over." His eyes made his invitation very clear. He thought Stevie might take a moment to make a decision, but she took his hand and led him upstairs to her room.

Under normal circumstances, Erik would have preferred to set the mood a little more: candles, music, something like that. However, both of them were clearly too eager to make any time for those pleasantries.

Within seconds, the clothes were off and they were in bed, having the most enjoyable night either of them had had in a long time.


	4. Chapter 4

Erik had not slept next to another person's warm body for so long that he could scarcely remember how pleasant the sensation was. Stevie was already asleep and now he began to actually consider the possible repercussions that this could bring. Naturally, it wouldn't look good if any member of the brotherhood knew about his involvement with a human. What surprised him, though, is that he was far more concerned about Stevie. It wouldn't look good if anyone knew she was romantically attached to the notorious Magneto. He didn't know whether or not he should suggest that they end things, or keep their attraction a secret. Neither of those options appealed to him, as the shame he had felt over his attraction to her had disappeared in about the same amount of time it took for them to remove their clothes.

He pulled her in a little closer, hoping desperately that he could somehow avoid hurting her and it could somehow all work out, though that possibility seemed so slim. Eventually, he let these thoughts leave his mind and he faded into sleep.

* * *

As Erik began to feel himself waking up, he became aware that something _heavy_ was on his chest. No sooner did he realize this than did he hear a sound that was awfully similar to that of a broken motor. He opened his eyes and saw the ugly cat lying on his chest, purring and looking extremely content. This was not what he would have wanted to wake up to. He picked it up and plunked it down on the bed, waking it up. The fur monster looked irritated for a moment before looking up at Erik and making a noise that resembled chirping and rubbing up against Erik. He supposed, as he got out of the bed, that it was better if the cat liked him than if it disliked him. However, he had never been a fan of cats. Stevie was no longer in the room, but Erik noticed that his clothes had been neatly folded on the dresser.

He pulled his pants on and began to slowly make his way downstairs, smelling coffee. There were a couple inches of snow on the ground from the night before and he could see Stevie watching the flakes floating their way to the ground. He coughed awkwardly. "Morning."

She looked over to him and they shared a very brief, equally awkward smile. "Help yourself to coffee."

He found a mug waiting by the coffee pot and poured himself a cup before going to sit at the kitchen table with Stevie. "Where are we?" He decided it was better to begin with light conversation.

"Troy. We're about three hours north of New York. That's why I don't make the commute lot during the week. It's a pain in the ass, but worth the trip for the weekend."

Erik didn't typically like to dance around important issues, so he decided that he had to bring up the obvious question: "So what now?"

"Thank god!" Stevie exclaimed. "I thought I was the only one thinking about how impractical this is."

Erik suddenly felt so much less nervous knowing that they both agreed the situation could be potentially disastrous. "Well, we both have to keep our reputations intact. It would be difficult for you to appear professional if people know we're sleeping with each other." She nodded, though he could tell that she wanted this to continue just as much as he did. After all, the previous night had been amazing. "However, I would be open to this continuing if we were to be…discreet about it."

Her face immediately lit up. "I could live with that type of agreement, Mr. Lensherr. Though I typically make an attempt not to mix business with pleasure, I would be willing to make an exception in this case." Her green eyes were completely alive with excitement and Erik took a small piece of her hair and began running his fingers through it. She suddenly became very serious. "I would really like to make this work."

"If you want to try, then I want to try," he responded. She leaned in and kissed him. "You know," he said with a slight air of playfulness. "I don't see why people always complain about the smell of coffee breath. I don't mind it."

She smiled. "Good."

They sat in silence for about fifteen minutes, holding hands and drinking their coffee, each enjoying the company of the other. "What are you doing today?" he asked.

"What I _should_ be working on today is my presentation for the president, and reviewing the marketing techniques for my company's new solar panels. However,what I _want_ to do is spend the day with you, ignoring my responsibilities. What about you?"

"Well, I _should_ work on finding more dirt to dig up on Trask in order to wipe him off the face of the earth, but ignoring responsibilities sounds a lot more enjoyable, especially if it involves you. After all, we do have three weeks to prepare for the presentation."

"Okay, how about I meet you at the office? I left my car there last night and I think you should probably find your colleagues to try and explain last night."

"Emma will know I'm lying."

"Well then they'll just have to keep their mouths shut. We'll have lunch when you get to the office. There's a great bistro nearby."

He nodded. "Sounds like a plan."

* * *

Erik gathered the rest of his clothes and took a train to a station near the mansion. As he walked inside, he could feel the eyes of everyone in the room on him. He showered and then quickly changed into a new set of clothes before making his way downstairs. He passed through the kitchen and passed Emma in the process, feeling her digging through his mind. "I'd prefer a little privacy, Emma."

"I just wanted to see if Azazel's assumptions were correct. It seems they were." She gave him with an accusatory glare.

"This is my business."

Mystique strolled into the room, looking absolutely livid. "No it isn't. You say that humans are the enemy and then you decide to sleep with one of them? Your hypocrisy is sickening and beyond your hypocrisy, this is just a bad idea."

"No one outside the brotherhood needs to know about this and I certainly don't intend to let anyone know about my personal life."

"And what about the cyka?" Azazel asked.

Erik's eyes narrowed. "She has agreed to keep this quiet. What remains to be seen is whether or not you all will."

"He does actually believe that Carson is going to keep her mouth shut, but what happens if she says something?" Erik didn't want to admit it, but Emma had a good point.

"I would deny everything. It's not as if she has any proof, so long as no one here says anything."

Though the brotherhood still looked dubious, it appeared as if they were willing to let him go for the time being.

As he left, Angel grabbed his arm. "Make sure your girlfriend knows that if she slips up, we will find her."Erik wrenched his arm from her grip and continued so that he could catch a train to New York in time for lunch.

* * *

He felt himself relax as he slipped into the familiar black Cadillac. "I don't imagine things went well?" she asked.

He shook his head. "They're not happy. But as you said last night: screw them. So long as we keep this secret, we have nothing to worry about. Will there be anyone at the bistro who will recognize us?"

"We'll slip in through the back. I know the owner." Erik looked surprised to see that she had planned things out that well. "I'm pretty smart when I want to be," she said with her signature smirk.

She pulled the car into the back of a small building and knocked on the back door. A young man – probably a bus boy – opened the door and immediately recognized Stevie. "Would you like a private table, Ms. Carson?"

She nodded and he led them to a private room where they wouldn't be seen by any of the other customers and where a very large man with purple eyes met them. "Hi, Paul," she greeted him with a hug, clearly familiar with him. "How's business?"

"Going well, thank you," he replied. "I suppose you don't want anyone to know either of you have been here?"

"That's what I was hoping for."

"Alright. I'll wait on you myself, then."

He left menus with them and Erik looked at her curiously. "He lived in the mansion a couple years ago," she explained. "So, he allows me a few perks whenever I come."

"I figured he was a mutant," Erik mused. "He could do so much better than run a restaurant."

"I think it's wonderful that he chose to run a restaurant. I even gave him the start-up money. Like a said, there's nothing wrong with a mutant wanting to live a normal life, if that is what they choose."

"I suppose our opinions differ to some extent, but I respect what you do."

Before too long their food was there and they sat in comfortable silence, simply enjoying the closeness that they could have with each other. "Are you sure you don't mind the secrecy?" he asked tentatively.

She shook her head. "I really don't. Besides, if it's between secrecy and ending whatever this is, I prefer the secrecy." She could read the relief on his face. "You can spend the night again, if you like. I could have Dianna drop some of your things off."

Erik knew that it was a bad idea – that they were distracting each other. But like the previous night, as he looked at Stevie, his fears for the future seemed further and further away. He nodded as he took a sip of the americano he had ordered. "If you think it's a good idea, then I'll spend the night. I don't want to distract you too much."

"Well, I spend most nights at the office during the week which means I may not see you again until Friday. If that's the case, then I want to get my fix while I can."

"Alright. Let's make a deal then. We work our asses off during the week on our mission. Friday evening until Monday morning is our time to spend together and ignore responsibilities. Does that sound okay?"

Stevie nodded. "Sounds perfect. I'll just have to get ahead this week, so things don't fall behind." She grimaced. "The only thing I hate is how we have to schedule each other in as if this is a business meeting rather than romantic escapades."

"It's necessary," he reminded her. "Even if it isn't ideal."

* * *

Stevie paid the bill and they went back to Troy, running into Dianna as they walked through the door. "Go ahead and put the clothes where you like," Stevie said quietly, motioning to the staircase.

Erik could still hear their conversation, even upstairs. "Helping him for the mutant cause is one thing. Becoming involved like this is entirely another."

"I'm an adult, Dianna – capable of making my own decisions."

"I think this is a bad decision."

"Then you will simply have to let me make this bad decision myself."

"He nearly blew up the American and Russian navies!"

"That may be true, but he isn't a bad person. Once the government understands how to address mutant issues and treats them like human beings, then things will be different."

"I hope you know what you're getting into, Stevie."

As soon as Dianna left, Erik went back downstairs and saw that Stevie had been hoping for a different reaction from her sister. He didn't say anything and instead opted to play one of the Peter, Paul and Mary records for them to listen to. Stevie sat down and pulled her legs up to her chest, looking at Erik, exhausted after arguing with her sister. He sat down next to her, tracing the pattern on her blouse before turning his attention to the newton's cradle. He moved his eyes towards it conspicuously and it began clacking, as if someone had sent it into motion manually. His little party trick managed to create a small smile on her face. "We can do this, you know," he assured her. She nodded and he kissed her gently on the forehead.

"Care to continue what we began last night?" she asked.

"I am most certainly up for anything half as incredible as last night."

* * *

Erik had spent the entire weekend with Stevie and even now, on Monday morning, he wasn't tired of her, sad to see her little black Cadillac heading towards New York City. But there was work to be done and they had a deadline that was fast approaching.


	5. Chapter 5

Erik found himself once again in the familiar Cadillac on its way to Washington D.C. In order to save gas, Stevie had opted for Erik to drive, though he preferred to exceed the speed limit beyond that which she felt comfortable with. The past three weeks had down nothing to dampen the connection they felt. Every weekend revealed the similarities between the two and brought even more incredible sex. Thankfully, none of the other members of the brotherhood went to D.C. with them. Being able to spend time together during the week was so rare that they had to take advantage of the opportunities that presented themselves.

Tomorrow morning would define the future of humans and mutants and Erik could tell that Stevie was incredibly agitated. As the Cadillac approached D.C., Erik couldn't help but say "I have confidence in you." She didn't respond, so he supposed the only thing he could get her to talk about until tomorrow night would be business. "Have the other businessmen done as they said they would?"

She nodded. "In the past three weeks a total of one point one billion dollars has been spent on the mutant lobby. We have a voice and a platform now. All that's left is for me to hold up my part of the agreement."

"Give Trask a run for his money and remember I'll be waiting at the hotel afterwards." She nodded and Erik couldn't get another word out of her until the next night.

* * *

Stevie stood outside the enormous building, smoothing her skirt before she went in to face the special commission that Kennedy had put together specifically for this issue. Congressmen, military, cabinet members, scientists, businessmen and others would all be presenting to each other, trying to sway the future, just as she was. It just so happened that she and Trask reached the doors to the conference room at the same time. "Carson," he said coldly.

"Trask," she replied with equal iciness.

Stevie couldn't help but notice that, as usual, she was the only woman in the room, so she put on the usual stone-faced persona that she needed to get through these types of meetings. Sitting down, she had to hear a variety of statements, most of which stating that mutants were dangerous. CIA reports were especially scathing of the new species. The scientists were completely useless to her, only commenting on how the mutations came about and describing a few different types of abilities that mutants could have. What was even worse were the military men, telling Kennedy that mutants could be used as weapons against the communists and any threat to the United States. Stevie had to physically bite her tongue in order to prevent herself from screaming at all of them.

She and Trask were the last two to present and she had to go first.

She stood and made her way to the front of the room with her charts, acutely aware of the sound of her heels against the floor. She immediately drew attention from most of those in the room, being the only women, but looking at her didn't necessarily mean that they would actually listen.

"I'll begin by attesting to some of my own experiences with mutants. The incredible abilities that these people possess have helped me to build my business and make a great deal of money. The rest of the business community, with the exception of Mr. Trask, has begun to utilize mutants as assets as well. Business is the backbone of the American economy, and I would hope that everyone in this room would keep that in mind as they come to a decision tomorrow.

"The world today is plagued by too many problems to count: an impending energy crisis, the possibility of nuclear war, famine, the list goes on and on. Mutants come with the unique opportunity to help us with these problems. I myself have made many breakthroughs in the development of clean energy because of my experiences with mutants. Many of you have cited the incident with Cuba in order to make the argument that mutants are dangerous. However, I have two things to say about that. First, I would like to point out that the dangerous mutant was dispatched by mutants who were working with the CIA. These mutants carried out their mission admirably and after the death of Sebastian Shaw, they should have been welcomed back to the U.S. as heroes. This situation was botched was the U.S. government in too many ways to count." Stevie decided that if her statements weren't provocative then they would go unheard. "After the mutants on that beach had prevented nuclear war, the U.S. navy was given the order to fire on the beach that those mutants – along with a human CIA agent – were on, which I consider inexcusable. One of the mutants on the beach who now identifies himself as Magneto did not appreciate this attack and responded violently."

"That is classified information!" The director of the CIA shot up from his seat. "How did you get access to it?"

"My sources don't matter. What does matter is that this is the truth, which the CIA apparently saw fit to hide from the rest of the members of this board. If we are to come to a decision regarding mutants, then all the information needs to be shared. This attack led to Magneto creating a group known as the Brotherhood of Mutants whose goal is to protect mutants from future attacks from humanity. I won't lie to any of you: there is the potential for many mutants to be dangerous, just as there is the potential for anyone in this room, anyone with a gun or a car to become dangerous. My recommendation regarding dangerous mutants is to approach them just as the CIA originally planned to: using other mutants to prevent the dangerous mutants from hurting people. Otherwise, mutants should be allowed the same rights as every other human being in the United States. This includes the right to privacy and most importantly, the right to live without fear. I guarantee that if this administration were to take a reasonable approach to mutants and prevent their persecution, groups like the brotherhood would all but disappear. Fear can make people do stupid things and in the case of mutants, it can cause them to lose control over their abilities for a time."

"And why should we work with them if they're dangerous?" a military general demanded.

"President Kennedy, only last month, chose to reason with Khrushchev in order to prevent nuclear war and the destruction of life as we know it. I am asking for this commission to prevent war between mutants and humans – a war which Mr. Trask intends to create. If you corner mutants, they will fight back just as any of you would if you were in the same situation. We have a lot to gain by working with mutants and even more to lose if we continue to hunt them like animals. I hope that this commission can see that." Stevie sat down without another word, glaring inconspicuously at Trask as he made his way to the front.

"Thank you, Ms. Carson, for that moving speech. It really is a shame that the conclusions you have drawn are incorrect. Gentlemen, you have heard almost all that you need to hear. Mutants are dangerous and don't let anyone try to tell you differently. Some can control our minds, some can move entire cities, and others like Sebastian Shaw could walk into this building right now and destroy us. I don't want these kinds of abilities to be in the hands of anyone who happens to inherit them because I think it's important for us to be safe, unlike Ms. Carson. I also come with a solution, though. I'm currently developing a technology that could be used to fight mutants and destroy them, if necessary. Now, I intend to give a demonstration of the work I have completed so far." He took a small device out of his suit jacket. "This can identify mutants so that they will be attacked and not anyone else." He turned it on and immediately pointed it at Stevie, only to see that she wasn't a mutant. However, the device did detect that there was a mutant in the room, causing everyone to look around.

Stevie jumped out of her chair and snatched the device from Trask before turning it off. "If this device actually works and there is a mutant in this room, then I suggest we give them their privacy. Because, at least for the time being, everyone in this room still has that right."

Trask looked surprised. "I assumed if anyone in this room was a mutant, it would be you." He whispered so that no one could hear.

"It looks as if you were wrong about more than one thing today, then."

President Kennedy stood up. "Gentlemen, this meeting is adjourned until tomorrow morning so that we can all sleep on the statements that have been made today."

Stevie followed the CIA chairman out of the room. "You've worked with mutants before, sir. Would you throw them under the bus just as quickly? That includes whoever the mutant on this commission is. You know how useful they can be."

"I also know that they can be dangerous," he warned her.

"Be that as it may, I think the potential benefits outweigh the risks and we both know that your opinion on this matter is going to be regarded much more so than mine. Would you be willing to stick your neck out to help the people who saved your ass?"

He looked at her as if he were very conflicted. "I may be able to convince one or two men tonight, but you know that I can't sway them all."

"All I need is to prevent extreme policies from being implemented. That will only happen if the vast majority of the tribunal agrees that mutants are dangerous and take methods to try and eliminate them. I can't have that and if that happens, then I guarantee that The Brotherhood of Mutants will make a very loud statement shortly afterwards to express their anger."

"I really would like to know your sources."

"My sources are anonymous, Director. But you know as well as anyone here that if the U.S. decides to wage war against the mutants, then there are those who would not hesitate to return fire." He nodded. "My approach creates the smallest number of casualties on both sides and is therefore the best option."

She left the Director that food for thought and was about to leave the building before she was approached by someone who had not been in that meeting. "Ms. Carson?" he asked. She nodded, not taking her eyes off him. "My name is Kenny and I am an aide to the president. He has requested that you see him in the oval office."

Stevie went with him, scarcely believing that she had made enough of an impression on the president to warrant a private meeting. As she stepped into the oval office, President Kennedy was standing alone. Kenny left the room in order to give them some privacy.

"Let me be clear," Kennedy began. "Anything stated in this room is completely off the record and is never to be repeated." She nodded in agreement, still a of daze. "Ms. Carson, I would like to thank you not only for your presentation today, which was wonderful, but also for protecting me. I don't imagine that the reaction in the room would have been very positive if Trask had discovered me."

Stevie's eyes widened. "What's your ability?" she breathed.

"I have a sort of hypnotic charisma that I can use to influence people. It was enough to sway the vote in my favor and it has been enough to prevent my popularity from dropping too drastically."

"I believe this is precisely the misuse of abilities that most members of that tribunal are afraid of, Mr. President." Now Kennedy looked like a kid who had been caught with their hand in the cookie jar. "Naturally, we cannot allow anyone to know this because they would use it as ammunition against the mutants. What do you intend to do about the tribunal? Most of them were against the mutants."

"I will be making a lot of phone calls tonight and cashing in as many favors as I possibly can. If nothing else, I know I can convince a few people to at least abstain from a vote."

"Well it's better than nothing, I suppose."

"I asked you here so that I could speak with a very important member of the mutant community. I hope you feel better knowing that there is someone in the government fighting for our cause."

"I've created a mutant lobby," Stevie assured him. "The congressmen in that tribunal will be receiving phone calls tonight as well and they won't be social calls."

"Regardless of the outcome of this vote, the mutant community is going to look to you and need your support. I need to make sure that you will be there."

Stevie nodded in affirmation then said, "If there is nothing else, I would like to return to my hotel and get some sleep before tomorrow morning. I assume you have a lot of things to be doing as well, Mr. President." He nodded and showed her out of the room.

Just as she exited the building she heard a voice in her head. _"Hello, Ms. Carson."_

"_Charles Xavier, I assume?"_ she responded. Erik had told her quite a bit about Charles.

"_Hank and I sitting on a bench across the street if you are interested in chatting."_

Stevie grimaced as she approached the two men – one wearing glasses and one in a wheelchair. "I would prefer if you would stay out of my head, Mr. Xavier."

"I'm surprised Magneto didn't give you his helmet," McCoy commented.

"I am less concerned with the outcome of this vote and more concerned about your association with Erik, Ms. Carson," Charles stated as he wheeled towards her. "You don't understand what he's capable of."

"No, I know perfectly well what he is capable of, thanks to Shaw's handiwork. Mr. Lensherr has suffered enough and is determined not to suffer again. What I am trying to do is make sure that happens without anyone dying. How much do you know?" she asked.

"I've seen enough to know that you are too close to Erik." She could feel a strange sensation inside her head, presumably Xavier. "Perhaps you do know what he is capable of, but you cannot change him," he said sadly. "I don't suppose Erik told you that he is responsible for confining me to this wheelchair."

"He told me everything about Cuba, Charles," she whispered. "And it is one of his greatest regrets." She recalled the intimate moment when Erik had talked about Cuba so Xavier could see the conversation as it had occurred.

She could see the pain that was beginning to etch itself on Charles' face before he pulled her in and whispered in her ear, "Don't let him hurt anyone and please take care of him." He was concerned for Erik and Stevie felt immediately reassured knowing that Charles wanted Erik to be safe.

"I will do everything that I can. And please don't share some of the more intimate details with anyone if you can help it." They held hands and shared a moment, understanding that they both had extremely similar goals. In fact, Stevie realized that her goals were much more similar to those that Charles held than Erik's vision for the world. But she would stand by Erik, even if they did see the world very differently.

"Of course," he replied. "It was nice meeting you, Stephanie Carson."

"And you, Charles, though you are the only person besides my father who has ever called me Stephanie."

"Yes, I can see now that you prefer Stevie. If we ever meet again, I will be sure to address you by your preferred name. And Erik was right: I will be listening in tomorrow to see how the wind changes."

She nodded and shook hands with McCoy. "It was a pleasure meeting you as well, Hank."

* * *

Stevie opened the door to the hotel room and rushed in. Erik scarcely had enough time to notice before she jumped into his arms and kissed him. "How did it go?" he asked desperately.

"The President is a mutant," she whispered softly.

"Kennedy?" he asked, shock spreading through his face.

Stevie was practically giddy. "We may just be able to win this one, Erik. I can't believe it. There are 19 members on this commission. I believe that right now, for sure, we have 6 votes in our favor with the possibility of a number of abstentions alongside the votes in our favor. That means that those who are anti-mutant will not have a clear majority. We are still in this battle."

"I knew you could do it, my dear."

He was about to initiate their usual evening activities before Stevie stopped him. "Charles was there." She felt Erik immediately tense and place her on the bed, sitting next to her. She wrapped her arms around him, realizing how difficult it must be. "He wanted to know whether or not you intended to hurt people, but he also wanted to know that you were safe."

Erik gave her a disbelieving look. "I seriously doubt that, after what I did to him."

"He saw my memories of the night you told me about Cuba." Erik turned to her, realizing that Charles may just have an idea about how sorry he was for how they had parted and for injuring Charles.

"How was he?" Erik felt a surge of emotion has he remembered his last moments with Charles and internally kicked himself.

"He seemed fine. He will be listening in on the vote tomorrow."

"You two are very similar, you know." She held him even closer. "I miss him. He was a good friend and taught me how to access my powers in ways I never thought possible."

"You may see each other again," she whispered. "I'll come straight back tomorrow after the vote."

"Yes you will."

Stevie decided to keep a few of the less happy details to herself. Erik didn't need to know how close Trask had come to exposing Kennedy, or that Charles had warned her that Erik was dangerous. He had enough to worry about.

* * *

The tension in the air the next morning was sickening as everyone filed into the room.

It was time for Kennedy to speak. "You have all presented various points of view on mutants and what the government should do to address them. Today we make a very important decision – one not to be taken lightly." The typist in the room who had been recording the proceedings was having trouble typing because they were sweating so profusely. "What we determine today is whether we want to strike the mutants before they strike us or whether we try to coexist with them. Those in favor of a preemptive strike please indicate now.

Trask's hand was the first to go up, along with six others, totaling seven votes in favor of a preemptive strike.

"Those in favor of working with mutants and coexisting, please indicate now." Stevie and Kennedy very quickly raised their hands and very slowly a number of others raised their hands as well, emboldened by the confidence of Stevie and the President. Ten total votes in favor of coexistence.

"Abstentions?" Kennedy asked. Only two raised their hands.

Stevie let out a lot of air that she hadn't even been aware that she had been holding in during the vote. "This means," Kennedy said, "That for the time being, this administration chooses to adopt a peaceful approach to the mutant community. That being said, we will meet December 15 to discuss the safety concerns that often occur with mutants and how to address those as well as potential benefits that they can give us. This meeting is adjourned."

"Carson!" Stevie turned to see Trask approaching her. "This isn't even close to being over."

"Maybe not," she agreed. "But so long as I'm around, I will make sure that you can't touch the mutants."

He narrowed his eyes and stalked off.

* * *

The car ride back to New York was a pleasant one, even though Erik was still going nearly twenty miles over the speed limit. Their fingers were interlocked and they finally allowed themselves to relax.

"I'm assuming you'll be attending the meeting next month, as well?"

"Of course. Maybe then we'll have something on Trask."

"I hope so, my dear." He took her hand and kissed it, leaving them both feeling at peace.


	6. Chapter 6

Stevie woke up to find the space on the bed next to her empty, apart from Teddy curled up beside her. Looking at the clock on the bedside table she saw that it was nine o'clock in the morning – which was much later than she usually preferred to sleep. Picking up Teddy she wandered downstairs, choosing not to put any clothes on, and saw that Erik had made coffee. She placed the cat on the floor and then kissed Erik. "About time you started to pull your weight around here," she teased.

"Well, I have to do little things here and there if I'm to keep such a beautiful woman." He handed her a steaming mug of coffee.

"Damn right," she said as she took a sip. "I'm a fucking catch."

He pulled her in closer, causing her to nearly spill the coffee on both of them, and reciprocated her kiss. "There is no denying that, my dear. I know no one else in the world capable of so often getting their way."

"One of my many talents," she said seductively as she sat down on the couch.

"Last night was a testament to some of your other wonderful talents."

"And yours, Mr. Lensherr. You're surprisingly flexible for a man. Quite talented, indeed." She smiled and was about to try a few new 'talents' out on him, when she heard the doorbell rang and they both tensed. People didn't ring the doorbell at Stevie's house. All of her mail was sent to her office.

"Were you expecting anyone?" Erik asked.

"No. Go upstairs and throw my robe down then stay there."

"But – " he began.

"Don't argue. If anyone knows that you're here, the biggest shit storm that either of us has ever seen will come down on us. Please go," she begged.

As Erik ran upstairs the doorbell rang again impatiently. Thankfully, within a matter of seconds, her robe was sent flying down the stairs and she was decent enough to answer the door. Though, she was in no way prepared for the person she saw on the other side.

"It certainly took you a while to answer the door, Carson." Trask was as delightful as he always was.

"I don't appreciate being woken up on a Sunday morning, Trask. What the hell do you want?"

"Do you mind if I come in?" he asked pleasantly.

"Yes, I do mind. If you have something to say, you can say it out there in the cold because you are never going to step foot inside my house."

"I'll get right to the point, then. I know that someone is in there with you." He said this as he peered in and saw the two coffee mugs on the coffee table, still steaming a little. "You've been spotted at a number of different locations with a man, though when you are out in public with him he wears a hat and sunglasses. Are you ashamed to be spotted with your new beau, I wonder? I would understand if you didn't want to be spotted with a mutant, but I don't think that your caution has anything to do with that."

Suddenly, the newton's cradle on the table began to clack very quickly, almost tauntingly. "Must be the cat," she said, not taking her eyes off Trask.

"I seriously doubt it. I don't think that harboring dangerous mutants such as Magneto is going to help your case with the commission, do you Ms. Carson?"

"And I doubt that you would like the whole world to know that your two children are mutants, Trask."

His eyes widened. "How did you know that?"

"Don't come to my home looking for a fight, Trask, unless you know what you are up against. Just so you are aware, I will keep things civil so long as you contain the battles to our businesses and to our battles with the commission. If you _ever_ threaten me personally again, or threaten anyone who I care about, then I will rain so much destruction on you that ten thousand hells could not compete with my wrath." At this point, Stevie could barely contain herself. "Now, _get the fuck off_ my property before I remove you myself, Trask."

For the first time since they had met, Stevie saw something that resembled fear in Trask's eyes as he slowly backed away from her and scrambled off to his car.

She closed the door the door behind her and glared at Erik, who was standing at the top of the stairs. "Could you have been more obvious?"

"I think he had figured it out on his own. I thought I would taunt him a little."

"You're asking for trouble. Now Trask is going to work even harder to shut us down and that is something we cannot afford."

"I'm not about to let that happen. Besides, I pity anyone who goes toe-to-toe with you. What is that phrase you always use? Rip them a new one?"

She rolled her eyes, but Erik could see that she had calmed down a little. "It was still stupid," she muttered.

"I won't deny that, but it was fun. Let's just enjoy this day. The commission meets again soon and today is our last day together until Friday. Tomorrow I will be breaking into a government facility with Mystique, so I would prefer to relax today."

"Do I want to know why you are breaking into this government facility?"

"Probably not."

She sighed, before kissing him again. "Let's finish our coffee and figure out what we want to do today."

* * *

It was Tuesday night and Stevie had to go to the mansion to welcome a new mutant there. Her heart began to race as she hoped she would run into Erik there.

Walking in, Allegra greeted here. "His name is Jeremy Walker and he can…enhance other mutant's powers."

"Enhance?" Stevie asked curiously.

"The closer in proximity mutants are with him, the more powerful they become. Emma shook hands with him and was able to read minds up to one hundred miles away. He went to Harvard law school and has his degree, but has been unable to get a job because of his appearance. He has resorted to theft on a few occasions, but I found nothing to prevent him from joining us."

"Thank you, Allegra. I'd love to meet him."

Jeremy stepped into the room and Stevie could immediately see why the poor man had trouble finding work. His hair was naturally a light pink, which could have been dyed, but all of his veins and arteries glowed an acid green under his skin. He would have trouble hiding that. "Hello, Mr. Walker, and welcome to my safe zone. I'm very happy to have you here, and I have a request." He nodded. "A few members of my legal team have recently resigned in protest of my support for the mutant cause. I typically don't like hiring Ivy League lawyers, but I'd like to make an exception with you. Of course, you will receive all the benefits that every employee at Carson Technologies enjoys and you may choose to either live here or at an apartment closer to our building."He looked absolutely astonished and began stuttering. "You don't need to make a decision tonight, either. Take as long as you want. If there is anything you need, though, don't hesitate to ask either Dianna or Allegra."

"Aren't you shocked by how I look?" he asked.

"Mr. Walker, I have seen much more shocking mutants walk through those doors and all of them have received the same treatment as everyone else. Besides, I think that your hair is a delightful color." Raven walked into the room, unashamed to show her blue form in support of Jeremy. "There is nothing wrong with your appearance, or Raven's appearance, or the appearance of any mutant."

"No one has ever told me that before."

"I'm happy to be the first, then. Allegra will show you to a room and just let me know whether you want to accept my job offer whenever you feel like. If not, then it's my loss, but you are free to choose whatever you like."

Stevie sauntered into the kitchen to get something to eat before heading back to the city and was crunching into an apple when Raven entered. "You know, it's awfully bold of you to tell him that there is nothing wrong with his appearance when you haven't had to live with a body that is very different from everyone else's." Raven was clearly not impressed with Stevie.

"That much may be true, but I do believe you are beautiful, Raven."

"It's Mystique, and don't give me your bullshit."

"I'm not lying to you Mystique. I wish that my body looked half as good as yours. Your skin is an enchanting shade of blue and the patterns on it are beautiful. You look so unique and that is wonderful. You may think that we have nothing in common, but you're wrong. We are both strong, powerful women fighting a world that is working against us. Be proud of everything that you are and never doubt that you are beautiful." Stevie glanced at the clock. "Now, I've got to go. Thank you for trusting me enough to stay here and to try and carry out my plans."

As Stevie was leaving, Erik was just coming in. He looked shocked to see her and then kissed her in excitement. "What are you doing here?" he asked.

"I was welcoming a new addition to our little clan. But don't you go stealing him quite yet. I want him to work for Carson Technologies."

"I will make no promises. Especially if he's very gifted."

"Fine," she sighed, feigning enormous irritation with Erik. "I'll see you on Friday, but I have to go and work some more on the presentation. After all, we meet with the commission next week." They kissed each other briefly, trying not to distract each other too much from the task at hand.

* * *

The next day, Rosemary was primping her afro when Jeremy approached her desk. "Well aren't you a sight?" she said. "Honey, how did security even let you in?"

The mutant swallowed hard, clearly nervous. "I would like to speak with Ms. Carson if she isn't too busy."

Rosemary gave him a decidedly unimpressed look before saying. "She has a meeting in half an hour, so you better be quick."

When Jeremy stepped into Stevie's office she immediately gave him an enormous smile. "I was hoping you would pay me a visit."

"Yeah," he said quietly. "Your secretary…"

"She's great isn't she?" Stevie's eyes lit up. "She has just the right amount of sass to shake the people who come in here. She takes them down a few pegs and then I handle the rest from there. Sit down," she said warmly.

"That Magneto guy approached me this morning." He looked at her as if he was afraid of a negative reaction.

"I expected he would," she said. Jeremy could have been wrong, but he almost detected _fondness_ as she said this and glanced at a newton's cradle that she had on her desk. "What do you think?" she asked. "Does The Brotherhood of Mutants appeal to you?"

"Not really. To be frank, I didn't take the Bar Exam so that I could run around New York making plans to attack the human race. You _are_ aware of some of his plans, aren't you?"

She grew a little more serious. "I am very aware of what Erik intends to do if this commission doesn't go well. Needless to say, I'm not a big fan of his end plan, so I'm trying to make sure it doesn't come to that."

"Doesn't it concern you?"

"There are parts of Erik that can be frightening," she admitted. "But he is a good man. He just needs to feel less persecuted, know that the entire world isn't against him. He needs to know that he isn't alone." Jeremy could tell now that Stevie was scarcely aware that he was in the room, lost in her own thoughts. She blinked and turned to him. "Have you considered my offer?"

He nodded. "I think I'd like to work here, Ms. Carson."

"Well then, I expect you to be in the lobby tomorrow at eight o'clock. I'll let Stacy at the front desk know that you'll be there and she'll introduce you to my legal team." He nodded and just before he was going to leave, she added one last thing. "I'd also like you to do me a personal favor, if you could."

"Anything."

"I have a project for you involving Bolivar Trask. Dig up everything on him that you and above all be _thorough_. Leave no stone unturned. There is no deadline, so there is no need to rush. Just a personal favor."

"Isn't corporate espionage a little…ethically questionable, Ms. Carson?"

"This isn't corporate espionage, this is personal espionage. I don't give a damn about whatever new weapon Trask happens to be working on. What I want is a way to make him appear dubious to the commission."

Jeremy nodded slowly, as if unsure about his decision to join Carson Technologies, now that he knew about her plans. "I can do that."

"Thank you, Jeremy. Needless to say this is to be kept under absolute secrecy. I know that this may not all make sense right now but I'm trying to prevent a war and in this case the benefits outweigh the risks. Mutants _need_ Bolivar Trask out of the picture if they are to survive."

After Jeremy left her office, Stevie felt exhausted and leaned on the front of her desk. She sent her newton's cradle clacked and allowed herself a small smile. "It looks like I win this one, Erik. I'll be sure to gloat when I see you on Friday."


	7. Chapter 7

Stevie felt Erik squeeze her in even tighter as the sun began to peek through the curtains of the hotel they were staying in. What was even nicer than that was the fact that they could stay in bed all day if they wanted to because they had arrived in D.C. a day early. "Are you nervous for the commission?" he asked.

"Yes, but now I know that I have allies and I also know a way to get back at Trask if he fights dirty."

"Good. I hate to see you agitated," he confessed.

She smiled and took in his amazing smell, thinking about having morning sex, but before matters could be taken further, there was a knock at their door. "This seems to be happening pretty often," she grumbled as she searched the room for something she could throw on quickly, opting for a pair of Erik's boxers and his t-shirt.

Stevie had been expecting a hotel employee when she opened the door, but she opened the door to Kenny, the president's aide. "Ms. Carson, the president has requested that you have lunch with him." He looked her up and down, ascertaining that she was not alone. "He has only requested _your _presence. A car will be waiting outside the hotel in an hour."

"There goes our relaxing day." Kenny was now gone and Stevie looked at Erik, a forlorn expression adorning her face.

"It's only lunch." He came over and held her. "You also look incredibly sexy in my clothes. Would you mind wearing them again tonight?"

"I think that can be arranged. But now I need to shower and try to make myself look presentable enough for the president in only an hour."

It was a surprisingly relaxed atmosphere that Stevie was led to for lunch. It was a nice private area, clearly meant for the president and his family. "Outside is nicer in the summer, but I think the snow may make it a little less enjoyable." The president was standing at the small table that had been set for them. He was still in a suit, but he did not have the incredibly professional air that he would have to take on at any other time. "I figured there was no reason for us to be too formal," he explained, pulling a chair out for her. "No secret service – no one here except us."

As he poured her a small drink, Stevie cut right to the chase. "You clearly have something you want to talk about." Her statement was borderline accusation, but it didn't take a genius to realize he had called her there for a reason.

"Yes, but given this matter is personal for both of us, I decided I would rather feel comfortable as we were having it. Some issues have come up."

They both began eating their salads and Stevie eyed him warily. "Issues?" she asked.

"It has come to my attention that you have been in contact with Erik Lehnsherr, also known as known as Magneto. That alone was more than enough to concern me, but Kenny seems to think you have entered into a sexual relationship with one another. Am I wrong?"

"No," she replied nonchalantly.

He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Do you realize how serious this will be if the commission learns about it?"

"Of course." She appeared incredibly offended at the suggestion that she was not aware of exactly what she was doing. "However, the commission will not be hearing anything about this. I have taken measures to be fairly discreet; we are rarely out in public together. Trask knows – naturally – but he will not be eager to make that announcement tomorrow, which I ensured. He would be the only member of the commission that would be even mildly interested in my personal life, so I doubt anyone else is going to care even if they heard that I have a mysterious man who spends the night at my house a couple times a week."

"How did you even become involved with him?" he asked, dumbfounded.

"It began as a business relationship," she explained. "He and his group were living in a sort of safe house that I have created for mutants who need help. I then learned that both Mr. Lehnsherr and I have the shared goal of keeping mutants safe, so they no longer have to hide. We decided to work together in order to obtain that goal and during that time I have tried to achieve that goal using peaceful means. After spending some time together in order to discuss our objectives, things became a little more complicated." Kennedy sighed, exasperated. "Please, don't act as if you are completely innocent in the sex department."

"You know about…?"

"I am very aware of your indiscretions, Mr. Kennedy." He looked as if he couldn't understand how she possibly knew. "You have your sources and I have mine." She took a sip of her drink. "But rest assured my personal life will be kept a secret until this commission has concluded its business. Besides, it's good that I have close contact with the leader of a more extreme mutant group such as the brotherhood of mutants. We have each other's ears and that will likely lead to an outcome that leaves everyone happy."

"Fine, but I want to meet him."

"I don't think that he's going to be able to stroll into the oval office quite as easily as I did, Mr. President."

"What do you suggest? If he has an influence over you then I want to meet him, because I trust you more than anyone else, except maybe Bobby." Stevie was a little taken aback. The president _trusted _her? This was only their second time meeting face to face and yet he already trusted her. "You support my cause, Ms. Carson," he said with a charming smile.

"You and Jackie could come to my house for dinner next week. That way we have privacy and nobody on the commission can complain because by then matters will hopefully be over. If you don't want Jackie involved, I can have others over in order to keep her entertained."

"Jackie is actually very interested in the mutant issue – after all, she is married to one. I may invite Bobby as well, if you don't mind."

"Perfect. I'll be sure to have Erik pick out the wine – he has excellent taste. Have your people call Rosemary, my secretary, and we'll set this up. Also, if you show up in anything more formal than khakis and a polo shirt, I'll send you all the way back here to change."

He laughed. "Alright. A double date, it is."

* * *

Stevie steeled herself, knowing this entire commission would be an uphill battle and knowing that the tension between herself and Trask would be even stronger than usual. When Kennedy finally stepped into the room, he began swiftly. "As you all know, we are discussing very important matters today. However, this session of the commission will be run differently. You will not all be presenting because we intend to keep matters as concise as possible so we may all return home soon. You have all submitted concerns to my office and I have reviewed them all carefully so that there is no overlap. What I will do is bring up a topic of concern and then the matter will be open for debate – civil debate, mind you. Once the matter has been discussed, it will be taken to a vote. In order for any type of action to be carried out, it must have a complete two thirds majority." He took a crisp sheet of paper out. "The first concern that this commission will address is the issue of mutant registration."

Trask immediately stood. "It only makes sense to register mutants because we need to be aware of the abilities that each of them possess. If there is a mutant that can create earthquakes and then suddenly Kansas has an earthquake, the investigation should start with that mutant."

"First of all, the idea is entirely impractical," Stevie drawled. "There is no way every single mutant would be able to be identified especially because I guarantee that powerful people are going to be able to keep them and their loved ones hidden, which defeats the purpose of registration. Besides which, it is an invasion of privacy which we as Americans have a right to have."

"People who have guns and other weapons are required to register them," Trask pointed out.

"Mutants are not weapons." Stevie's voice became hard as the debate between herself and Trask began to heat up. "Most of them simply want to live their lives in peace."

"And what about the ones who don't?"

"Then we take care of them just as we took care of Shaw. A lot of people have the ability to do enormous damage if they choose to – mutants aren't the only ones. The key to addressing the dangerous ones is to fight fire with fire."

The matter was taken to a vote after more extensive debate and the results were very mixed, so mutant registration didn't pass. The rest of the debates were carried out in much the same way: a showdown between Stevie and Trask.

"So if mutants can be so helpful to companies, how do you suggest the companies locate mutants if these mutants aren't registered?"

"Make it clear they are offering work for mutants who have useful abilities. I've had my fair share of walk-ins who have heard about what I do and I'm sure others will enjoy these same benefits if they do the same. In fact, many mutants are discriminated due to their appearance. I recently hired a Harvard law graduate for my legal team who couldn't find work anywhere else simply because he looks different. The man is a genius but competition to hire him was low because nobody else would take him. That alone gives me a business advantage."

"Because of this you suggested a law that prohibits the discrimination of mutants?"

"Yes."

That particular law was not passed due to the same reasons nothing else passed: mixed results. There were actually a few things that all members of the commission could agree on, though. One of which being the necessity of special prison facilities for dangerous mutants. Much to the disappointment of Stevie, very few concerns were successfully addressed. It was coming to the end of a very long day when Trask brought up an issue that Stevie had a very good answer to. "Let's say, for argument's sake, that no mutants intend to use their powers destructively. Even in such a case, is it not possible that some mutants may _unintentionally _use their powers destructively? The research I have done indicates that when many mutants first acquire their abilities, they have very little control over them. How do we prevent a mutant from _accidentally_ doing damage?"

"It has occurred to me that what the mutant community may need is a school," she mused. "A place where the children will feel safe and where they will have experienced people helping them to control their abilities would be my answer to your question, Mr. Trask."

"Are you suggesting that the United States fund a facility where mutants can use their abilities to become lethal weapons?" Of course Trask would make a _school_ sound dangerous.

"I'm not _suggesting_ that the United States fund anything," she drawled. "However, I would inform you that whether the U.S. funds such a facility or not, one is likely to be completed sooner or later - perhaps more than one." At this, many of the men in the room began to look uncomfortable. "What I _do_ suggest is that this commission tries to be sympathetic to the mutant cause because dangerous mutant groups such as the Brotherhood of Mutants are waiting for the results of this commission. If they deem the results to be less than satisfactory, then they will begin to take matters into their own hands. I don't think that I need to tell anyone here that we would prefer to prevent such an outcome."

"Is that a threat to this commission, Ms. Carson," Trask asked.

"No, I am once again simply stating facts."

Obviously this conversation went nowhere but if nothing else, Stevie had at least left the commission with some food for thought.

The final topic of discussion for the day was undoubtedly the most important: should the public be informed about mutants. Even Stevie felt conflicted about this topic, so there was no possible way to predict the outcome it would have with the commission. After Kennedy introduced the topic the room became quiet for the first time since the commission had sat down.

Trask began venting about how the public deserved to know if a threat existed, but Stevie chose to tune him out and formulate her own opinion. For the first time since this entire ordeal began, she was speaking for the mutant community without knowing what the mutant community would want. Most other topics didn't require much thought to conclude what was best for mutants, but this topic was _completely _and utterly different. The public could very well react violently if they learned about mutants and mutants would, without question, lose a great deal of their anonymity. It could also create a public panic.

But then Stevie considered the alternative to informing the public. They would learn about mutants eventually and if they learned due to the fact that some crazy mutant ousted the entire community in some sort of rage, the public's fear of mutants would be exponentially amplified. If this became a public matter, Stevie may have more control over the matter. After all, congress had already been more or less bought by the business community. That way, she would have more control over the outcome of the matters currently being discussed by the commission.

"For the first time in our history together, I agree with Mr. Trask," she announced. "Though my reasons are entirely different from his, I believe that the public should be informed eventually about the existence of mutants. This would prevent more panic than simply allowing people to find out about mutants themselves, without explanation. This may also mean fewer mutants hiding in the world, terrified of what they are because they don't know that there are others like them – that they aren't alone. This matter needs to be addressed incredibly carefully," she warned. "Every single word spoken that introduces the mutant community needs to be triple checked to ensure that it will receive the calmest reaction possible from the public. We also have to make preparations for all the commotion that will ensue after the announcement is made."

The members of the commission, seeing that Carson and Trask actually _agreed_ on something felt as if they had no choice but to join the two business giants. The only thing to decide now was _when_ to tell the public. The country was already beating itself bloody with the civil rights movement and from what Stevie knew, things were beginning to escalate in Vietnam – not to mention the fact that America was in the middle of a Cold War that seemed without end. If American troops were sent to Vietnam, that would mean that America was fighting three battles. Did they want to add another even more volatile battle to the mix?

The CIA director gave his opinion. "I think that we need to wait until such a time that American politics have calmed down. We have too much on our plate now to even consider adding another issue, especially one so difficult as this."

The others turned to Trask and Stevie, who had apparently become the 'go-to' people for opinions. They both nodded in agreement. After all, the last thing either of them wanted was more public agitation and panic – it was bad for business.

A senator whose name Stevie couldn't recall asked the all-important question. "What type of timeline are we looking at? Months? Years?"

Kennedy rubbed his face thoughtfully. "I think that this commission should reconvene in five years on the issue of introducing the mutant population to the general public. Until such time this knowledge will be kept from them in order to prevent public panic. At that date, the commission will again discuss the issues which it was unable to decide upon on this day."

Despite having agreed upon that, the majority of the commission left the room with a bitter taste in their mouths due to the lack of progress they had made on the issue – in either direction. When Stevie stepped out of the building, she found a corner to hide in and leaned against the wall, trying to compose herself until she could get to the hotel. Of course, it would be even harder to tell Erik that nothing had been accomplished.

As she began to slide onto the ground, not caring if she tore her panty-hose or got any part of her suit dirty, she heard a voice in her head. _"You did very well today Stevie."_

Charles _had_ informed her that he would be listening in. "You should save your compliments for someone who actually managed to achieve their objectives, Charles."

"_The outcome today has no impact on the fact that you were marvelous. I'm happy that the mutant community has such a competent spokeswoman. I know of no one who could have changed the outcome. Perhaps your meeting with President Kennedy will turn up something to work in our favor."_

"Erik isn't going to take this well, Charles," she said sadly. "He isn't a patient man and I cannot imagine him waiting five years to begin his alternative plans."

"_I'm hoping you may be able to stop him my dear, though I fear it is too late." _Charles paused. _"On some level, you support the actions you know he's going to take."_

"Yes," she admitted. "I'm not proud of it, but yes."

"_All I ask is that you try to keep him away from the darkest paths, then. If not for the sake of the humans, then for his sake."_

"I will, Charles. Thank you."

Her worst fears were confirmed when she entered the hotel and told Erik how little had been accomplished during the commission. "It will be another five years before another discussion is held. Until then, at least, mutants are completely unknown to most people." She could see his face darken. "I'm so sorry, Erik. I was wrong to think that I could sway the commission and until congress begins to discuss these issues, I have no power."

"You didn't cause the fear and hate that they harbor." He sat down on the bed and looked incredibly pained.

"Kennedy will coming for dinner next week. He wants to meet you."

He looked up, surprised. "Did he have any other plans for this meeting?"

"We didn't discuss things in detail so I'm not sure. He'll be bringing Jackie and Bobby with him and we will be discussing mutants – that's all I know."

"Perhaps not all is lost, then. We do still have one very powerful ally."

Stevie could see that the hope he had held the previous day had faded almost to nothing and all she wanted was to ensure that he did not go down a dark path from which he couldn't return.


	8. Chapter 8

Erik, as usual, was capable of taking fairly informal clothing and making it appear suave, as if it belonged in a fashion magazine. Stevie almost felt a little awkward without a blazer on – naked in only a pair of jeans and a sweater. "So the president really wanted to meet me," Erik asked with a smirk.

"Don't get cocky," Stevie chided. "I would ask what kind of wine you got, but it is probably too pretentious for me to even comprehend."

"Agreed," he smirked again. "So what kind of lovely meal are you preparing for the Kennedy's this evening? I don't recall you cooking very often."

"I think we've always been a little busy for cooking. Besides, I never feel like cooking a five star meal after I've just closed a business deal or reviewed a budgeting issue." She enjoyed their banter so much but she was afraid that the Kennedy's might actually think they were serious.

"Have I ever told you how sexy you are when you talk about running a business?" He glanced up from the wine he was preparing to see her shake her head with a smile. "Well, just letting you know. You also didn't answer my question."

"I have prepared multiple courses – just like the Kennedy's are used to – but I thought I might rattle them a little bit by serving comfort food."

"My dear, I think they're going to be rattled enough just having me in the room."

"Just don't show off too much and don't forget that there will be at least one other mutant in the room tonight. The president may not be the only Kennedy with abilities."

At this, Erik's eyes flashed with excitement. "I'll be sure to keep a close eye on the other one, then." He watched Stevie as she set the table for their guests and he agonized over what he was going to do after tonight. If he couldn't help the mutant community anymore by laying low, then Magneto would have to step out of the shadows for the first time since October. He wasn't yet sure how this would affect Stevie. "Has Jeremy managed to dig anything up on Trask? None of my people have."

She shook her head. "Nothing but a few parking tickets," she sighed. They were about to continue the conversation but Stevie's doorbell rang and she left Erik to go answer the door.

"Well, Ms. Carson, I don't think anyone is going to be looking for me out here." JFK looked around the house in shock. "This certainly does not look like the home of a business magnate."

"That was the goal, Mr. President. I can think of better ways to spend my money than on a large, fancy house that I'm not going to be able to spend the majority of my time in anyway." He nodded, at least partially understanding why she chose to live in such an unassuming residence. "Come in and meet Erik."

All three guests stepped in and immediately, all eyes were on Erik as he strolled into the room to greet them. "Mr. President," he said warmly as he shook Kennedy's hand, quickly following suit with Jackie and Bobby.

Stevie rolled her eyes as Erik passed all the food around without touching any of the pots or pans. She poured herself some wine, keeping a very close eye on him. The others had their eyes on him, too, but theirs was a wary stare – one of borderline fear.

"Time for business," Kennedy announced. "It's interesting to finally be in the same room with Magneto."

"It's an honor to be in the same room with the President," Erik replied. "I am assuming, though, that you are not entirely pleased to see me."

"Well, you've made multiple threats to the United States in some way or another." Bobby was not about to be left out of the conversation, though Jackie appeared perfectly happy to stay quiet.

"My only goal is for there to be mutant prosperity. I'm not over eager to go to war with the human race." As he said this, he glanced at Stevie – this was due to the fact that she was the primary reason he didn't want to go to war with the human race – but also noticed that Bobby appeared to be concentrating on something. Erik came to the conclusion that Bobby was a mutant as well.

Bobby nodded at JFK and the president continued. "You'll do it, though, if push comes to shove?" Erik nodded slowly, as if unhappy to be admitting it. "I have to ask, then, what your plans are now that the commission has taken us nowhere?" the president demanded.

"That all depends, Mr. President," Erik replied – cool and collected. "What do _you_ intend to do now that the commission is over? Indeed, what _can_ we do? Diplomatic measures have not been incredibly effective."

Kennedy sighed and looked like a much older man – the presidency aging him. "If only I knew. As you said: most diplomatic approaches have been exhausted. It appears as if time is all we have for now."

"I hope you can understand, Mr. President, if I would rather be proactive so as to ensure the future of our race. I cannot tell you, at this time, what my plans may be but I can tell you that there is the strong possibility that these plans involve activities that could be deemed…questionable."

"As President, I promised to protect the American people from all threats foreign…and domestic. I hope you can understand."

Erik nodded. "I can understand. I am not eager to become enemies with a fellow mutant."

"I'm actually more curious to hear what Stevie knows about mutant schools. She mentioned them briefly during the commission."

Stevie bit her lip nervously. "Erik and I have a mutual friend who is going to open a school for mutant children where they will be safe. Naturally he and I are very pleased to hear about it."

"I _do_ like that idea, but it's a little tricky. If the government has control over the schools, then that may not be the best for the children, but private institutions have their problems, too. I'm sure your friend has the best of intentions, but not all those who open these schools necessarily will."

Stevie nodded. "Nothing involving mutants is going to be easy. I just hope you get reelected so we'll still have a friend in the White House."

Jackie, who had been silent through the whole conversation, decided to address Erik. "Did you really lift an entire submarine out of the ocean?"

He laughed. "Yes. I have done a great deal recently to hone my abilities, though I imagine your husband is even more powerful than I am." He stared at the wine glass in front of him before returning his gaze to Kennedy. "I'm not asking you to look the other way when I return to my activities, but I would prefer if you kept my presence here secret for now."

"The only real crimes you've committed thus far are breaking a dangerous mutant out of jail and harboring dangerous mutants. I'd prefer if you didn't add any more crimes to that list, but at this point there is nothing I will do to stop you – if for no other reason than the fact that I would rather not do that to Stevie." It was strange for Stevie to think of herself as a friend of the president, but she supposed they knew too many of each other's secrets for them _not_ to be friends.

The rest of the dinner was spent in relative silence. Erik opted to clean the kitchen in order to give Stevie some privacy with the guests. The atmosphere was rather somber as the four people all stared at each other. "I'm sorry there is nothing more I can do," Kennedy sighed.

"There isn't much anyone can do in this situation. Erik isn't a bad man," she said only a little defensively. "I'm hoping that the man he truly is – the one buried deep – comes out to prevent him from passing the point of no return."

"For your sake," Kennedy replied. "So do I."

As they filed out of the house, Bobby stood in the doorway for a moment longer than his brother and sister-in-law. "You're right about him," he said. "But you also bring out that better man – the one that's buried. Use that to the advantage of all involved," he begged. Stevie looked at him questioningly. "I have an interesting ability, too."

She closed the door behind them and felt incredibly old as she stood there. The past few months had passed in a whirlwind and for it all to suddenly come to a standstill, it almost gave her whiplash. What were they going to do now? The following year, Kennedy would be very busy preparing for elections and Stevie had to stay in New York in order to run her company effectively.

Erik came up and hugged her from behind. "I'm going to have to leave," he said with agony.

"How long?" she asked, barely able to prevent herself from crying.

"I'm not sure, but if I can no longer depend on the government to be on our side, I will have to take matters into my own hands."

"When will you leave?"

"I will stay until January. That gives me time to plan my next move and for us to decide what we want to do and to spend time with each other. You won't be going in to work again until after Christmas, right?"

She nodded. "Let's take advantage of the time we have."

* * *

Stevie had purchased gifts for all those who were staying in the safe house, but she and Erik didn't exchange any gifts over Christmas. (This was partially due to the fact that Erik was Jewish and partially due to the fact that neither of them felt like celebrating.) They lay in bed together, despondent. They knew that in only a matter of days, Erik would have to leave.

"I hope you know that I don't want to leave," he said desperately.

"I know, Erik."

"I also understand if you want to end this. It would be unfair for me to leave you and then expect you to wait."

The look she gave him made his chest ache, knowing he was causing her pain. "And who the hell would I end this for? It's not as if I have a line of men who I adore waiting for the chance to get in bed with me. No. So long as you promise to come back, then I will still be here."

"It's funny," he mused. "I have never felt so close with someone who I have known for such a short period of time, except maybe Charles. Though, he had the unfair advantage of being able to read my mind. We haven't known each other that long. Logic would state that we should be able to part easily."

"This is still probably the longest relationship I've had with a man." Erik looked surprised. "I'm a very busy woman and most men don't understand that. They want housewives who will put their husband's needs first and who will be home every night. I can't offer that, so most leave fairly quickly."

"Truth be told, I've never had a relationship that lasted this long, either. And this is the first time I've truly wanted to stay. I promise I'll come back, Stevie." He looked pained and then suddenly said: "I love you." One would have thought those were the most difficult words to say to anyone, given the expression on Erik's face.

"I love you," she replied, as if it were common sense. "All I ask is that you promise me one thing while you're gone."

"Anything."

"Don't lose yourself, Erik. You are not the monster that you believe yourself to be and I don't want you to pass the point of no return on a dark path. Come back as the same man that is laying here with me – a good man."

The only other person who had every told Erik that he was a good man was Charles; he was constantly baffled by the similarities Stevie shared with his friend. He had not expected such a request from her, but he would oblige her, no matter how difficult it may be. "I promise that when I return, I will still be recognizable."

The tears flowed down her face as she said, "Thank you."

He pulled her in close so she couldn't see that he was crying, too.

* * *

He was gone now, but he intended to keep his promise. Though Stevie would never know his activities while he was away, he kept a photograph of her with him at all times so he could not forget his promise to her.

He had not imagined how difficult it would be not to see her at least once a week. He even missed her damn cat! He would give anything to wake up with that thing on his chest and Stevie making coffee downstairs. He wouldn't tell Stevie yet, but he wanted to see her somehow. If he could manage to create even a few days of lag between his various missions, then he could make it to New York and see her: run his hands through her brown hair, stare into her green eyes, and sleep with her warm body up against his. For the time being, though, he had to throw himself into his work so that he may ensure them a few days together.

Stevie threw herself into her work. By the time it was February, Carson Technologies was already developing three new technology designs and the company was about to buy out one of its smaller competitors. She kept rooms full at the safe house, and put in extra effort to help the mutants living there. Even with all that, she still had enough free time to think about Erik.

"Ms. Carson, there is a gentleman out here who wants to see you."

Stevie leapt from her desk, hoping it was Erik, only to open the door to her office and see it was the head of the CIA. "Come in," she said a little stiffly, trying to quickly compose herself. He sat down in front of her desk as she said, "What can I do for you?"

"I have been giving thought to opening a mutant division of the CIA. Though there were bumps in the last operation, there is no denying that they got the job done. It's just as you said: we need to integrate mutants so that when they are eventually introduced to the public, the transition is a smooth one."

"From what I heard, the mutants who worked with the CIA were mistreated and seen as freaks by many others who worked there. Why would I want to open up mutants to that abuse again? Besides, you don't need me to open up a mutant division of the CIA. You can find candidates yourself."

"I can think of no better person to go to on such a matter. I will admit that things were tense with the past recruits, but we're prepared for this situation, now. I am completely authorized to do this and I want to begin training them. I will personally oversee the project and ensure that they are treated properly."

It was a step in the right direction, so Stevie didn't have the heart to deny him; she would do anything for the mutant cause. "You will not step foot anywhere near where I house mutants. If I hear of anything dubious, then I will shut this down immediately. I will see who wants to join the CIA and then send them to a location that I have designated for you to see who has volunteered. Then, I will be able to contact these agents whenever I please – so long as they are not in the middle of a mission – and I will ask them whether or not they have been treated properly. Those are my conditions. Can you live with them?"

He nodded eagerly. "What is the location?" She wrote down the address of the empty warehouse that Erik had worked out of for a time, knowing that it would be perfect to introduce the Director to his new recruits.

"This will be in Wednesday morning, around eight. We'll see how many volunteers you receive."

When the CIA director left, Rosemary stepped into the room. "I can keep him away if you want me to," she offered, not knowing what he had been there for.

Stevie smiled. "That's not necessary, Rosemary. The Director and I have business together, so I'm going to have to work with him. Besides, he isn't that bad. I certainly prefer him to the majority of the businessmen who I am forced to tolerate."

Rosemary nodded and stared at Stevie sadly. "You haven't been the same since he left. Are you going to be okay?"

Stevie was touched by the concern that Rosemary had, but there was nothing that either of them could do. "I'll probably be okay eventually." She couldn't help but glance at the newton's cradle on her desk, hoping that it would begin clacking and Erik would step into the room, smirking at his party trick. "If he ever calls or shows up, though, let me know immediately."

Rosemary smiled. "I'll do even better: I'll tell you and then tell anyone else in the room to get lost."

"Thank you, Rosemary."

* * *

On Wednesday morning, Stevie met the CIA director at the warehouse, just as she promised, with five of her tenants waiting with her. "Only five?" he asked, looking them up and down.

"I told you that I was only bringing volunteers. You're lucky that you have five."

He nodded and pushed his glasses up. "Do you care to introduce them, or are they going to introduce themselves?"

"I'll introduce them."

She indicated to the three women and two men behind her and one of the men stepped forward. "This is Arthur and his abilities are very subtle. Basically, he can look at _any_ type of system whether it is environmental, social, technological, etc., and pick it apart mentally to determine how the different pieces function together. He can do this only with a glance." Arthur was very unassuming and plain looking, but the director seemed impressed with his abilities.

Stevie then indicated to the incredibly large man in the room – huge and muscular. "This is Jamie and he has the ability to make himself invisible." She continued with the two other women in the group: Leslie, who could enhance one of her senses at any given time and Rachel who had acrobatic abilities which were not dissimilar to that of a cat. Finally, and grudgingly, Stevie introduced the final member of what would be the Director's new team. "This is Dianna, and she has the ability to disturb gravity fields and make objects levitate." She didn't want her sister to join the CIA, but Dianna had volunteered.

Looking them up and down, the Director seemed to be very pleased with the range of abilities that he had been given. "Thank you, Ms. Carson and I promise that you will not be disappointed. I also promise that they will be well taken care of."

She nodded and the five new agents began to climb into a car that the Director had provided for them. Stevie hugged Dianna very tight. "Keep in touch. I don't need to know about your missions, but I do need to know how you are."

"Love you, Stevie."

"Love you, Di."

After the two sisters had parted ways, Stevie arrived at her office and Rosemary had information for her. "Mr. Lehnsherr is beginning to show up on government radar again. Our sources gave me some information and I left it on your desk." She paused and gave Stevie a fair warning. "Most people aren't going to be aware of this, but you know that Trask will be keeping tabs."

"Thank you, Rosemary." Rosemary had just reminded her of something very important. "Rosemary, I need you to make an appointment for me. I'll leave the information on my desk and you can let me know tomorrow morning when I come in about the date and time."

"Important?" Rosemary asked.

Stevie nodded. "Incredibly important. And, as always, I ask that you keep this as discreet as possible."

**A/N: Hey, I hope you're all enjoying this. Just to let you know, in the next couple chapters I'm going to be changing the background of an X-men character a little bit. She wasn't in the movies so if you've only seen those then you won't be familiar with her, but let me know what you think of the changes to her background story once I introduce her :)**


	9. Chapter 9

Stevie passed Rosemary the next morning and stepped into her office as her secretary followed her. "I made an appointment for this afternoon," she informed her. "Is this what I think it is?"

"You're a very bright woman, Rosemary, therefore I'm going to assume you have come to the correct conclusion. I won't be returning to the office today after my appointment, so I hope I don't have any other arrangements for this afternoon."

"You did but I rescheduled them all for next week."

She laughed. "What would I do without you, Rosemary?"

"Stumble around like a chicken without a head."

It may have been a somewhat disturbing similie, but Stevie supposed it was an accurate one. "Thank you."

* * *

She sat in the doctor's office, anxiously awaiting the results from the test. The male doctor stepped in and Stevie could tell that he was going to beat around the bush for a time. Needless to say, she did not have time for bullshit. "Just tell me the results, please."

He eyed her, judgment emanating from every pore. "You're pregnant, _Ms._ Carson. May I enquire about the father?" Stevie's last name was common enough that most people would not assume they were speaking to the person behind Carson Technologies. Not that her success should make a difference – rude was rude. He was clearly drawing conclusions about her due to the fact that she wasn't married. There were many times Stevie wished she didn't live in the 1960's.

"The father is my fiancé, not that it's any of your business," she lied. She decided to pad the lie a little more, just to make him feel awkward. "We're going to get married as soon as he returns from Vietnam, where he is acting as an advisor to the South Vietnamese army." Erik was _sort of _a soldier and Stevie felt very satisfied at the look on the man's face so she felt no remorse over stretching the truth. Besides, she had to save a little face for when he saw where the bill was going to be mailed to – it wasn't going to her personal residence.

"I see," he said with a cough, trying not to embarrass himself even more. "Well it appears as if you are seven weeks along…" He began saying a number of things about health during pregnancy but Stevie mostly tuned him out; a lot of it was common sense. She tried to concentrate on staying composed which had been a very difficult task lately – at least since Erik had stepped into the picture. "That said, everything appears normal and you can make your next appointment with the receptionist on the way out."

"Thank you and I ask that this office please be as discreet as humanly possible with my medical information. It is very possible that a man named Bolivar Trask will try to obtain some of my information and I would very much like to keep it private." She knew Trask would find out eventually and keep it stored in his arsenal against her personal life, but she hoped to keep him out of it for as long as possible.

The entire way home she felt as if she was in a daze, scarcely remembering the drive. 'Fuck!' was all she could think as she collapsed into her couch. Just when she had thought that her life couldn't possibly become more complicated or difficult, this was added to the mix. She struggled to think her way through the situation.

She had met Erik in late October. They were sexually involved for all of November, December, and the beginning of January, meaning that their relationship had lasted three months if she was generous. Now Erik was gone and she had absolutely no idea when he would come back. She had an enormous business that she had to run while still managing to command the respect of her competitors and allies. All the while she would have to do this pregnant.

She had been as careful as possible to prevent this, but apparently Erik had mutant sperm as well. Well, whenever Erik did come back, he was certainly in for a shock.

Her phone rang and Stevie answered it to hear Rosemary on the line. "Ms. Carson?"

"It's exactly what I was afraid of," she responded numbly.

"What are you going to do? Not that I want to pry."

"Rosemary, considering how much help I am going to need from you in order to get through this shit, you are free to pry all you want. To be honest, I have no idea what I'm going to do. Listen, can we talk about this tomorrow? I'll be a little more collected then and we don't have too much to do so we'll have time to think this over."

"Of course," Rosemary insisted. "Don't be afraid to call if you need anything, though."

"Thanks," she replied before hanging up the phone and collapsing into the couch again. She felt a few tears roll down her cheeks, so completely overwhelmed by the situation.

The next morning, Stevie went to her office and was greeted by Rosemary. "Here are a few documents you need to look over and sign today, but everything else has been moved to next week."

She really would be lost without Rosemary and once she had reviewed the documents and had them sent to their proper locations, Rosemary came in and they sat down next to each other in front of Stevie's desk. Stevie had never been so thankful that her office was completely private as Rosemary pulled her into a hug. "What are you going to do? Do you even know when he's coming back?"

"I have no idea when he'll be back, but I think I might go through with this."

"What about the company?"

"Well, I'll pretend as if nothing has changed as far as business is concerned until I am showing so much that I can't hide it. Then I suppose I'll have to work from home. The last thing I need for my competitors to have more personal ammunition against me. Being a woman is bad enough in their eyes, but being pregnant could seriously compromise the status that I have worked so hard to achieve. Besides, most of my work can be done from home or through a proxy so I'm not too concerned about that."

"That still doesn't change the fact that he's not here," Rosemary reminded her.

Stevie nodded. "He needs to know, but I have very few options available to me in order to contact him."

"Can one of those mutants help you?" asked Rosemary, who was reasonably knowledgeable about mutants, thanks to Stevie. (After all, given Stevie's hobbies, it would have been awfully difficult to keep Rosemary in the dark.)

Stevie nodded. "Possibly."

"Also, how do you think you're going to take care of yourself when you sleep in the office at least three days a week? The commute is going to be even more awful than it already is."

"You're being incredibly supportive, Rosemary," she remarked sarcastically.

"I'm just making sure that you're thinking realistically. You don't take very good care of yourself, Ms. Carson, and that's going to have to change one way or another."

* * *

When Stevie went home for the weekend, she decided that she had to start outlining what she was going to do about this whole debacle because Rosemary was right: Stevie's life wasn't exactly conducive to a healthy pregnancy and she was completely unprepared. As she approached her house with her groceries, her neighbor noticed her struggling with the key and decided to help her. "Thank you, Mr. Thompson."

"Not a problem," he replied. He paused before carefully saying "I don't see that young man coming anymore. Did something happen?"

Stevie smiled uncomfortably, hating to be reminded of Erik. "Well, he had some work he had to do, and I don't know when he'll be back. He may not even be in the U.S. right now."

"That's a shame," he remarked. "He's just like my Eleanor was."

"How is Erik like your wife?" she asked, completely baffled at the comparison.

"Eleanor was a very special woman, just like that young man. She could touch a book and know everything that was in it!"

"Your wife was a mutant?"

"She sure was which is why I'm so happy you're my neighbor. You have so many special people coming and going that I eventually figured out you're helping all of them. It's not every day you see a man with pink hair ring your neighbor's doorbell after all."

"How did you know Erik is a mutant?"

He shook his head and chuckled. "He doesn't do a very good job hiding it. Whenever he closes the door to that fancy car of yours, he never touches it."

Erik had always been a show off. "That certainly sounds like him," she said sadly.

"But he's coming back, right? He seemed so nice."

"Yes, he's coming back. I just don't know when."

"You should come over sometime," he said cheerfully. "I'm an old man and I have nothing better to do than talk the day away, but that would certainly be more enjoyable with such a pretty young lady."

"I'd be glad to." Surprisingly, Stevie actually meant it. She had never really talked to Mr. Thompson, but he seemed very pleasant and talking to someone simply for the sake of being social was fast becoming a foreign concept in her life.

"Just drop by any day you like. I almost never have something to do so I probably won't be busy." With that, he shuffled back to his house, letting Stevie put her groceries away in peace.

She wanted to tell her sisters what was going on, but for some reason it just didn't seem right for them to know before Erik. Of course, Erik may not even return by the time the baby was born but that didn't change the fact that she wanted him to know before her sisters or anyone else. It couldn't hurt for her to try and think of a way to contact him – she was one of the most powerful people in America for Christ's sake! She wasn't about to let anything stand in her way of getting what she wanted. She also knew where Charles lived, so if nothing else, he may be able to contact Erik if he wasn't wearing his helmet.

* * *

A number of weeks had passed and Stevie was late to work one day due to morning sickness. Much to her dismay, she stepped into her office to find Allegra and Jeremy there, rummaging through her mail. "What the hell?" she demanded.

Allegra looked up from the mail coolly as Jeremy fidgeted uncomfortably at getting caught. "Here I was feeling horrible for keeping secrets from you and all the while you've been hiding this mother of all secrets from me?" Allegra asked. "I'm not sure whether that pun was intended or not."

It appeared as if Allegra had found Stevie's medical bills. Maybe she should have had them sent to her private residence after all. "Why are you even in my office?" Stevie asked irritably.

"I was going to take you to lunch today with Jeremy," she replied matter-of-factly. "Rosemary said that you were ahead on all of your work so there wasn't a problem if you didn't spend much time in the office today."

Stevie sent an icy look to the pink-haired lawyer in the room. "Not to be rude, but why did you invite one of my legal staff to go with you to violate my privacy?"

"He's the secret that _I _was keeping. Truth be told I'm relieved that you have some – now I don't feel so bad. Come on, I know this great Indian place."

After they had ordered, Stevie stared at Jeremy and Allegra, having ascertained the secret they had been keeping. "How long have you been together?" she asked.

"Since December," Allegra replied lightly. "Poor Jeremy was so nervous you'd fire him."

Stevie eyed him. "He does good work, though I wasn't overly pleased to find either of you in my office. I won't fire him but why the hell did either of you see fit to go through my mail?"

Allegra shrugged. "I was bored." For the first time since they had seen each other that morning, she gave Stevie a sympathetic look. "I wasn't expecting to find medical bills. Are you okay? Does Erik know?"

Stevie sighed. "I'm fine but Erik doesn't know. We haven't been in contact and if that doesn't change soon I'm going to take matters into my own hands."

"When were you planning on telling me that I'm going to be an aunt?" Allegra asked, only a slight pout on her face.

"Isn't it bad luck to tell anyone before the first trimester is over or something like that?" Stevie implied innocently.

"Stephanie Carson that is bullshit and you know it. You just didn't want to tell anyone."

"Fine," Stevie grumbled. "I wasn't ready to tell other people yet – are you happy now?"

"Marginally. How long have you known?"

"Five weeks."

"Do I dare ask when the last time you talked to Erik was?"

"January – the day he left."

Allegra appeared incredibly indignant over the whole idea. "You mean to tell me the father of your baby is off running around and hasn't even bothered to _call_ you? And you are how far along now?"

"I'm twelve weeks," Stevie replied with an eye roll. "And didn't you hear me when I said that he didn't know? My more immediate concern is getting the company ready for when I can no longer come to the office. I'm not about to give those corporate assholes anything to taunt me with, so once I can no longer hide that I'm showing, I'm out of there. That gives me two months at most to prepare. I suppose it's a good thing you know now, Jeremy, because I have a lot of legal changes that I'm going to need to sort through now."

"Of course, Ms. Carson," he replied awkwardly.

"Jeremy, considering you're dating my sister and you are now privy to some of my most private information, I think you can call me Stevie."

He nodded, trying to conceal the sweat that had been forming on his upper lip. "I found something the other day on Trask."

Stevie's attention immediately locked onto him. "What?"

"Look, if it is something, then it's just the beginning of the thread. It may turn out to be a complete waste but I found a facility that seemed suspicious. It's only very loosely linked to Trask and I was unable to find out what the building was being used for. It has, however, been stocked with enormously expensive lab equipment. It may take months of digging to find out more, but if you want me to look into it…"

"Of course!" she insisted. "This is the first lead we've found in months; I'm not about to let it slip through my fingers." For the first time since Erik had left she felt slightly at ease – knowing she may be able to end Trask was freeing. "Thank you so much, Jeremy."

"Happy to help," he stuttered. "I can also draw up some documents you may find useful to change you're legal situation now that you're…"

"You can say the word pregnant you know."

His face turned the same color as his hair. "Yeah, uh, pregnant." Stevie looked at Allegra who seemed completely enamored by the awkwardness of the other mutant, gazing dreamily at him.

Allegra was suddenly reminded of something else she had wanted to share with Stevie. "Dianna will be home tonight!" she squealed, practically bouncing in her chair. "You have to tell her!"

Stevie nodded. "Okay, I'll swing by tonight."

Allegra shook her head angrily. "You're going to spend the night tonight. There is no way I'm going to let you drive home so late. We have a few extra beds and you can drive home in the morning. Besides, you can borrow my clothes." Stevie raised her eyebrow dubiously. Allegra was a five foot ten, willowy goddess while Stevie was five foot one and had always carried more weight in the hips than Allegra. "Fine, so maybe you won't borrow my clothes but we can find something for you."

"Okay." Stevie gave in. "I'll take care of a few things at the office and then meet you two there?"

Allegra nodded eagerly before kissing Jeremy goodbye so that he and Stevie could continue their work day. They had opted to walk to the restaurant and as they walked back, Jeremy kept glancing nervously at her. "I'm really not mad. You don't have to worry," she assured him, which did seem to make at least a small difference.

* * *

Stevie hated to admit it, but it was nice not to spend the night alone and it was refreshing to be standing in a crowded room where everyone liked her – you didn't get that very often in the business world. When she told Dianna, she didn't take the news as well as Allegra. "I told you that asshole was trouble," she muttered.

"Di, this is nobody's fault."

"Maybe," her sister said as her lip curled. "But he should be here right now waiting on you hand and foot!"

"Like I told you, he has no idea."

Dianna began ranting about how Erik had ruined Stevie's life and Stevie sighed, not wanting to have this conversation. "How is the CIA treating you?"

"Fine," Dianna replied tersely. "There have been a few incidents involving assholes, but they've been managed fairly well and the director has been very good to us. The missions aren't exactly like I expected but we've been doing well."

Stevie nodded, not needing to know more when the doorbell to the house rang. "Did you order pizza or something?"

Dianna shook her head and stood quickly to see what was happening down the hall from them. As Stevie followed her she heard two very familiar voices. "Hello, my name is Charles Xavier and this is my colleague Dr. Hank McCoy. Is this an inconvenient time?"

Dianna stood at the door, arms crossed. "What are you doing here?" Stevie had forgotten for a moment that no one else knew Charles and Hank.

"Di, it's okay. They're friends. Come in."

Everyone in the house sat in the large living room, curious as to what their guests wanted. "As Stevie is already aware, I am going to be starting a school in the next couple years. There are still a number of preparations that need to be made, but I figured now was as good a time as any to see if anyone was interested in teaching at the school. I have a handful of individuals who have already volunteered, but it's still not nearly enough to run a school – especially if I take in all the students who want to come. I've been considering this quite extensively lately and I have to ask you Stevie: how would you like to work with me? If you come across anyone who would like to help with the school I would very much appreciate it if you could send them my way. I also was hoping you may send potential students my way as well."

"Of course," she said eagerly. "I will do everything I can to support your school; whatever you need is yours."

He smiled in appreciation but Hank was the one who burst out in excitement. "The facilities there are going to be amazing! Our labs will be state of the art and we will be able to provide our students with anything they could ever possibly want or need."

Charles rolled up to her and said, "May we speak privately?"

She and Charles slipped into the room where she would be spending the night and he began. "Have you heard from Erik?"

"No," she replied miserably. "Do you know anything?"

"Next to nothing," he replied with a forlorn expression on his face. "All in know is that he has been in various parts of Africa for the past two weeks. Do you know what his plans are?"

"No. We thought it would be better if I didn't know – plausible deniability. You don't know anything else that's happened since he left?"

He looked at her curiously. "No. Why?"

"I suppose I assumed you had read my mind."

"No, my dear," he said with a chuckle. "I prefer not to dig through other people's minds unless it's necessary. Is there something I should know?"

She wasn't sure at first, but she knew that if she needed him to get in contact with Erik, he would eventually know the truth. "Honestly, it's probably easier if you just dig, Charles."

He looked concerned then nodded and placed his index finger to his temple. She was unsurprised that she couldn't feel his presence at all, but his presence became very clear as his face changed from concern and curiosity to concern and shock.

"Charles, it's very possible that I may need you sometime in the near future in order to contact Erik so I can tell him."

Charles still looked surprised but managed to stutter "Of course." He paused for a moment before adding "And Erik? When do you plan to tell him?"

"He's still doing what he needs to do but if I don't hear from him soon, don't be surprised if you find me at your doorstep hoping that you can locate him."

"May I?" he asked, clearly indicating he wanted to dig a little more.

"Go right ahead."

After a few moments, he returned to the present and rubbed his face. "It has been a while since I have felt sympathy for Erik."

"Charles, I think you are too compassionate a person to be angry forever. I know that you've lost a lot, but you still have the school," she said assuredly.

"You two are truly remarkable," he said in disbelief. She couldn't tell if he meant it as a compliment or an insult.

"I'm actually glad it happened now that I've given it thought. I think that this could anchor Erik and prevent him from taking things too far while he's gone. Once I tell him, that is."

"Good luck. I can't imagine that conversation being an easy one."

She nodded and led Charles and Hank out of the house, a little sad that everyone seemed to know about this except Erik.

The next day, she had nothing to do, so she decided she would talk with Mr. Thompson. She hoped that he wouldn't mind if she dropped by without having called. No sooner had she knocked on the door when the little old man swung it open, clearly excited. "Come in, come in!" he insisted.

Within minutes he had tea poured and they were sitting around his coffee table sipping it. "I know that you must a lot of exciting things going on, but is there anything in particular that's especially interesting?"

Stevie paused for only a moment. Mr. Thompson was just so friendly and open that she felt as if she didn't have to put on the brave face that she painted on for everyone else besides Erik. Actually, she really needed someone to talk to, so she began telling him about what had been going on, sparing some of the more disturbing details of Trask.

He sighed sadly. "Eleanor and I were lucky enough to spend sixty years together, but we were never able to have children," he added. "It sounds tricky, but are you happy?"

She thought for a few moments. "Yes. I'm terrified, but happy."

"Well, so long as you're happy the rest will work itself out. You have an awful lot on your plate, but you seem like a woman who can handle it."

She smiled. "Has anyone ever told you how easy you are to talk to, Mr. Thompson?"

He laughed outright. "Well, Eleanor certainly never told me that. I'm glad that you seem to think so." He noticed the time. "You ought to go on home. I don't want to deprive you of dinner or a good night's sleep."

"Thank you for listening."

**A/N: So this ended up being longer than planned, but let me know what you think. I'm also curious if anyone has accurately guessed whose background story I'm changing a little bit :)**


	10. Chapter 10

Stevie stared at herself in the mirror. No one else would be able to see any difference but she was beginning to show; she would have to look through her office clothes to see what would be best suited to hiding it. Rosemary handed her coffee as she stepped into the office that morning, which immediately put Stevie on edge. "What happened?" Rosemary only went and got her nice coffee when something had gone wrong.

"There has been a terrible setback with that battery technology we were working on. The lab that was working on it encountered an accident and most of the data and research has been lost in a fire."

Stevie sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Get the manager of the facility on the phone. I need to figure out what I'm going to do about this."

After an hour long conversation with the manager who only barely convinced Stevie not to fire him, she felt completely exhausted. Rosemary came in again and tried to cheer her up with a bagel. "Food isn't going to help, Rosemary."

"That doesn't change the fact that you need to eat. Also, I'm assuming Friday is the best day for your doctor's appointment next week?"

Stevie nodded and Rosemary left her to try and figure out what to do about the financial setbacks the fire had caused as well as the time setbacks for the new battery.

When Stevie was about to leave for lunch, she opened the door only to see the last person in the world she wanted to talk to standing just outside her office. "Ms. Carson I'm so sorry. I haven't been able to remove him."

"It's fine, Rosemary. I'm sure that Mr. Trask doesn't intend to keep me long this morning."

"Certainly not," he replied with a false smile, looking her up and down the way an animal might eye its prey.

She sat at her desk and eyed him warily. "What exactly do you want, Trask?"

"I only wanted to inform you that I am aware of the fruits of your exploits with Mr. Lehnsherr. I have to say, though, that your doctor's office did a very admirable job in keeping that information hidden for so long."

"I'll have to give them a gold star," she replied coldly. "You're doing a remarkable job in hiding your contempt."

"Contempt?" he asked, genuinely confused. "Ms. Carson, I hold a great deal of admiration for you. If it weren't for the fact that you supported the mutant cause and were pregnant with the child of one of the most dangerous mutants in the world, then I would have absolutely no problems with you. Even so, you make a very worthy adversary." What was most surprising to Stevie was the fact that Trask appeared to be sincere.

"I suppose that now you'll be leaking that information to the press in order to ruin my reputation?"

"No. For now I'll keep it to myself for use at a later date. Besides, I don't want to ruin your reputation unless it is the only way to destroy the mutants and for the time being that isn't the case."

When Trask left, Stevie felt a shiver wrack her entire body. Trask was planning something and she was sure that it wouldn't bode well for her.

* * *

When she arrived home that night the phone rang and she assumed it was Rosemary or possibly Allegra, but was very surprised when she heard "Stevie" on the other end. There was no mistaking his voice. It looked as if her search for him was over.

"Erik?" Her voice, barely a whisper, rose almost two octaves from a combination of excitement and nerves.

"It's so good to hear you." From the tone of his voice, she guessed that their separation had been equally hard on him. They had been accustomed to spending days together at a time and were now completely deprived.

"I didn't know you'd be able to call." She felt more relaxed being able to hear him. This wasn't the type of thing she wanted to share over the phone, but if that was her only option, she would take it.

"I'm usually not able to, but there are occasional exceptions. I have a surprise for you." She could hear how absolutely delighted he was, so it had to be a pretty amazing surprise. "I can be in New York next week for three days."

She felt as if her entire body would launch like a rocket. "Really?" It was so perfect: not only would she be able to see him again soon but she would be able to talk to him in person.

"Yes. I may be able to visit a couple times this year, actually. There are periods of time between tasks where we are doing nothing but waiting and I can have Azazel drop me there. I won't be able to do it often, but I figured…"

"It's unbelievable, Erik. This means so much to me." It really did, but she supposed she may have to prepare him for his 'surprise' as well, though she would only tell him in person. "Actually, I have a surprise for you, too, when you're here next week," she choked out.

She knew her voice had been off when she told him, but she hadn't expected him to sound so crushed on the other end. "Is everything okay? It doesn't sound like the nice kind of surprise."

"Everything's fine," she assured him, though she knew her voice was incredibly false. He certainly wouldn't buy it. Why did she have so much difficulty lying to him? "And as far as the surprise is concerned, it's just a surprise." Shock would have been a more appropriate word but it seemed as if she had already put him on edge for Friday so she didn't want to do any more damage than was already done. "I can't take the day off on Friday because I have to officially buy out another company which is an incredibly tedious process, but I will be home much earlier than usual," she promised. In reality she had a doctor's appointment that afternoon and she wasn't going to be inviting Erik to it before they had actually spoken to one another face-to-face.

"I have to go. But I'll see you on Friday." He hung up.

She didn't know what she had said to make him as agitated as he was but she felt horrible for taking away the elation they had both felt for the following weekend. He knew something was up, obviously, but he had no way of knowing what exactly it was. In a weird way, it seemed only fair that they both be incredibly nervous for Friday. Her only problem was that she had no idea how to tell him. After all, it may not necessarily be horrible news, but it was incredibly inconvenient for both of them. Not to mention the fact that she didn't even know how to begin the conversation.

* * *

Stevie hadn't slept much as she waited for Friday to finally arrive. She pulled up to her house and saw the lights on. Erik. Bracing herself she opened the door to hear the familiar clacking sound of her newton's cradle and discovered the most nauseating smell wafting from the kitchen. He was cooking some type of meat, which she was sure was absolutely delicious, but now was not the best time to be cooking it inside her house.

He strolled into the living room, taking her in before he saw her hold up her hand then dash to the bathroom where he heard her heaving up what she had eaten for lunch that day. He hurried after her, concern etched on his face as he held her hair. After she had finished, she begged him to open a window in the kitchen which he willingly did.

When she stepped into the light of the kitchen, he immediately noticed how terrible she looked. Dark circles were under her eyes and she had turned a worrisome color which was probably due to her getting sick. She looked exhausted in every sense of the word.

They hadn't seen each other since January and it was now late April but they didn't have a reunion like the movies always depicted it. Theirs was much slower.

"Hi," she said, after she noticed him staring at her.

"Hi." Neither of them was accustomed to being lost for words, so Erik tried to clear the air a little. "I suppose you weren't going to let anything stand in the way of your business today," he mused.

"What?" She looked confused.

"You managed to complete it while you're sick – I'm impressed."

"I didn't feel sick until just a few minutes ago," she informed him, looking awkwardly at the floor.

For Erik, as he took in the tension in the room, it was as if his worst fears had been confirmed. After a long pause he said, "I think I know what you want to talk about."

"You do?" Now Stevie really _was_ confused. So few people knew about this and he had been traveling around the world. There was no way that Erik could know.

"Yes, and it's okay. I know how difficult it must be for you to stay here and wait while I am away so long for my cause. I knew when I left that it was unfair of me to let you do that, so I don't blame you for wanting to end things."

She certainly hadn't been expecting that and despite her utter exhaustion she managed to pull a very strongly offended face. "That isn't what I wanted to talk about and it certainly isn't the 'surprise' that I mentioned on the phone. Jesus Christ, Erik! Did you really think that I wanted to end things?" He nodded slowly. "I love you, you idiot!" The tension in the air eased a bit and he felt as if he could breathe again.

Now it was Erik's turn to be confused. "What is it you wanted to talk about, then?"

"I'm pregnant." Then, as she let that sink in she added a little irritably, "I thought you ought to know."

He was clearly having difficulty processing the new information and all he managed to sputter out was, "How?"

"Well it certainly wasn't intentional. I was using every single type of contraceptive you can imagine." The stress was beginning to rise again, so Stevie tried to lighten the mood a little. "My current working theory is that you have mutant sperm."

The joke, at least for a moment, subdued the panic that was slowly taking over him. "I just…what?…"

He was still incapable of forming coherent sentences, so she decided to let him know what she had been thinking. "I honestly don't know what to say, either. I'm sorry? You should know that I have no expectations, Erik. Neither of us is ready for this and I'm not going to force you into this shitty situation."

"I think if either of is to be apologizing, it ought to be me." She could see that he was finally able to think again and was relieved. "You don't have to do this, you know. Not if you don't want to."

It looked as if Erik genuinely wanted to know what it was Stevie wanted. "I think I want this," she whispered. She also noted that neither of them could even bring themselves to say the word 'baby'.

He grabbed her hand and pulled her to the couch that they had shared so many times before, bringing her in close to him. Stevie couldn't be sure, but she thought this might mean that he wanted it, too. "How long have you known?"

"A few months. When you called me I was so relieved that I would have a way to tell you. Like I said: you ought to know. But I still don't know how the hell I'm going to pull this off." She didn't want to assume he wanted to be involved, though she desperately hoped he would.

"I don't have any ideas as to how we're going to pull it off, either." He subtly informed her of his decision and he felt her crying onto his shirt in relief.

They sat together for a while, feeling the mixture of terror and happiness bubbling inside them. "You look terrible," he informed her. Under normal circumstances he would have said this jokingly, but now he was genuinely concerned for her health – at least, more than usual. She really did look half dead.

"I haven't slept much since I found out," she replied numbly.

"Come on." He kissed her hair and had her eat the food he had been preparing earlier, now that the nausea had passed. Then, after having completed the absolute minimum cleanup possible in the kitchen, they walked to the bedroom and Stevie slept better than she had since he left.

* * *

When Stevie woke up the next day she saw that the clock read noon and she mentally kicked herself for sleeping so late. Erik walked in and handed her a mug of coffee, slipping back into the routine that they had held together. "I can't remember the last time I slept in until noon," she moaned.

He shrugged. "You needed it."

She smiled as she sipped her coffee. "I also can't tell you how many times I dreamed about this while you were gone. You're very sexy when you make coffee," she informed him.

"That makes two of us. I can't even begin to tell you how much I missed you, Stevie." He eased into bed next to her, trying to contain all the hundreds of questions floating in his head, not wanting to overwhelm her. "I'll stop everything," he told her. "I'll come back to New York."

Stevie could hear in his voice that he didn't want to do that and because she knew Erik she also knew he would hate to give up on his mission. "No," she replied adamantly.

"What? I can't just leave my pregnant…" He tried to think of a word that could describe their relationship and fell short. There probably wasn't a word that described them, so he opted to continue without a word. "…alone here."

"You can and you will. Erik, you need to continue. I'm not about to end my work because of this and you can't end yours, either. Besides, the last thing I need is for you to eventually become resentful because you had to give up your cause. Finally, and most importantly, if your cause is actually helping mutants, then it's going to benefit our baby." She had finally said the word and the entire situation suddenly became real to her. "After all, since you're the father and I have two sisters who are mutants, the likelihood that it's a mutant is fairly high."

Now Erik decided to begin twenty questions. "How far along are you?"

"Sixteen weeks. I'm due in October."

"October?" he asked. Things might actually be slipping into place nicely. "October is right around when our first big project will be over. After we've finished it, I can stay here for a while."

An enormous smile split onto her face. "Erik, I'm beginning to believe we may actually be able to do this."

"I still don't like the idea of leaving you to do this by yourself. If something happens, I'm not very easy to contact."

"If you don't wear your helmet then I can use Charles. I know you won't like it, but…"

"Due to lack of options I don't think I'm in any position to argue." He looked conflicted for a moment before staring at her very seriously. "If you ever feel as if you need somewhere safe to go, go to Charles. He'll protect you."

"Protect me from what?"

"I'm just playing through every single horribly possible scenario in my head of what can go wrong. I'm sure that isn't very comforting."

"Once again, it appears as if we're in the same boat."

"Does anyone else know?"

"So far, it's Rosemary, Dianna, Allegra, Jeremy and anyone who works at the office I went to for the test." She swallowed hard. "Trask knows, too."

She felt Erik immediately tense up. "Did he tell you?"

"Yes. He came into my office last week."

She heard what sounded like a growl escape him. "I don't want him anywhere near you." Stevie looked at him curiously. "He intends to create machines capable of hunting down mutants and destroying them – forgive me if that makes me paranoid."

"You aren't about to hear me complaining about avoiding Trask," she said, truly meaning it. She huddled in closer to him. "Honestly, I'm just happy that you're here."

"So long as you want this, I want this." Stevie wrapped her arms around Erik after hearing that. "You look much better now than you did last night."

It had taken a while for them to become comfortable with each other after not seeing the other for four months but they were soon revisiting the activities that had created part of their problem in the first place.

Afterwards, he played with her hair, noticing how shiny it was. "Jeremy found something on Trask," she told him excitedly. "He's looking into a facility that Trask is loosely connected to. Apparently it looks dubious. He gave me these papers on it." She stood up and pulled the papers off her dresser, quickly handing them to Erik so he could look them over.

"I'll have Mystique investigate."

"Trask is planning something," she said quietly. "I don't know what it is, but… We may be onto a way to ruin him but if I know one thing about Bolivar Trask it's that he's not going to go down without a fight. I also think that his morals may be even more grievously skewed than mine, so at this point I wouldn't put anything past him. Maybe I should pay him a visit, just to shake him up."

"I don't care if I have to kill him myself to make sure he's nowhere near you. I won't lose you, no matter what he's planning."

She shook her head. "I don't think killing him is necessary. Especially if we figure out what he's using that facility for. Don't be rash."

"I can't lose you, Stevie." He pulled her in so tight she had a little difficulty breathing. "When was your last doctor's appointment?"

"Yesterday. We're both healthy."

He stared at her nervously, "Both of you?" She nodded and kissed him in an attempt to assuage his anxiety.

She tried to distract him. "How are your missions going?"

For the first time since she had mentioned Trask, she saw Erik smile. "It went even better than imagined. Now that things are going well I may be able to come to New York more often." She kissed him happily, excited to hear good news after so long but this did little to cheer him up. "I hate not being here."

"You haven't missed much."

"But I will. I may not even be here when it's born."

She smiled sadly. "I'd rather you be here after it's born than before. Besides, we've already agreed that you need to do this. Isn't part of your big mission preparing the world for mutants?" He nodded. "Then our baby can be as proud of its father as I am. Neither of us can give up the work we've been doing – I'm just lucky that my work keeps me here in New York. You're doing what you can and it's enough, Erik."

"You can be awfully irritating when you make sense out of this chaos."

"I try."

"Fine, but please note my protest."

"Duly noted."


	11. Chapter 11

Hearing Erik over the phone was so comforting, even if it _had_ been a month. "I can be there in about two weeks. I'm so sorry, but I haven't been capable of contacting you recently. I sent Azazel alone for a mission and I've been in some remote areas of the Middle East up until now."

"I'm just happy I know when to expect you; that's the best news I've heard in a long time. When exactly will you be here?" Stevie's time without Erik was still difficult beyond belief, but knowing when their separation would end, however briefly, helped her to cope with the pain of his absence.

"I should be arriving sometime next Thursday. Can you take Thursday afternoon and Friday off?"

"Yes, of course. I'll see you Thursday afternoon."

"Okay, I have to keep this call brief, but is everything alright?"

"Yes. Don't worry."

"I'm afraid to inform you that I am not about to stop worrying."

"I suppose I'm not one to talk, considering how often I worry about you."

"I'll be there soon, my dear. I have to go."

* * *

Stevie sat in the doctor's office after a very awkward examination waiting for a clean bill of health so she could go to the office. She had to take all her necessities home because it was becoming far too obvious for her to continue going to work. If she waited any longer then everyone would know for sure. Her doctor strolled back into the room casually looking over her charts. "Have you felt any movement, yet?"

That began to make her nervous. "No. Should I be feeling movement?"

He shrugged. "It's nothing to be concerned about for now it's just that a lot women would have felt something by twenty-one weeks. The heartbeat is fine and everything else appears normal." Stevie failed to hide the apprehension on her face. "If you'd like, you may make an appointment with colleague of mine; he works with a new technology call ultrasound which would be helpful to identify if there is anything wrong, though I doubt there is."

She nodded, still anxious. "I really would appreciate it, thank you."

She returned home that night and made her best attempts at transforming her living room into an office. Rosemary and Jeremy had opted to act as proxies for her while she was gone and if anyone asked, they would say that Stevie was seriously ill with Lyme disease or mono or some disease that would keep her away from the office for a number of months. She couldn't stop thinking about what the doctor had said, though, about the movement. Erik would be back in only a matter of days if he made good on their phone call from last week; what would she tell him?

Just as Stevie finished setting up her new 'home office', she heard her doorbell ring. She thought it may be Mr. Thompson: they were supposed to have tea tomorrow but with his dementia he often confused the days of the week. When she opened the door, though, she was surprised to see Charles and Hank. "I apologize for not calling, Stevie, but I was in the neighborhood and realized that we haven't chatted in a while. If you're not busy…"

"Not at all, Charles, come in. Hello, Hank," she nodded towards the other mutant. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to apologize, too, because my living room is currently unavailable. We'll have to sit at my kitchen table."

Coffee was made, typical greetings exchanged before Charles addressed what Stevie knew he had come for. "Have you told Erik, yet?"

"Yes, actually, he was here about a month ago and will be coming back in a few days. He took it reasonably well."

"May I?" Charles asked, placing his index finger on his temple.

"Of course, though I would recommend for your own sake that you refrain from seeing a _couple _of the memories from that weekend." Stevie took a little bit of personal delight at the awkward horror that turned Hank's face a very bright pink.

Charles seemed unfazed by her comment as he continued to dig through her memories. "I must say Stevie, that you are remarkably relaxed at the idea of me being inside your head. Even most mutants would prefer that I didn't take that liberty."

"I've always held a fascination for mutants and their abilities and I love to see their abilities at work. Besides, I trust you Charles. And Hank, I'm aware that you must be using some type of serum to normalize your appearance, presumably for the sake of anonymity. At some point, I would love to see your blue form, see what you can do. Erik told me how wonderful your abilities are."

Hank appeared surprised that she held an interest. "So Erik told you?" Hank hadn't realized that he had actually made an impression on him. "I don't think I've ever encountered a human who would be quite so nonchalant about my appearance."

She gave him a small smile. "Raven made a similar remark, so I'll tell you what I told her: I've seen a lot of mutants who look a lot stranger than you, Hank." She returned her attention to Charles. "Have you found what you're looking for, Charles?"

He nodded. "I can't believe he actually told you to come to me if you needed help, though he was right to do so. I've begun to think of you as a friend, Stevie, so feel free to come to me for anything that you need." The look on Charles' face said that he really meant what he said – a humanitarian to the core. "He's different around you, you know," Charles said, changing the subject. "Not quite so cold. Your memories have restored my faith that perhaps one day Erik can still come back – not forever remain Magneto."

"I don't think that he's a cold man by nature but by necessity."

"Regardless, it appears as if I should congratulate the both of you. Your child already has a place reserved at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters should they take after Erik," he informed her with a smile.

"Where he or she will no doubt receive a quality education," she replied. "Speaking of the school, how have my recruits been?"

"Exemplary. In fact, with all the help you've given us, we may be able to open the school as soon as next year, perhaps sooner."

"That's fantastic, Charles! I'd love to be able to see it, sometime."

"I'll call you once all the construction is complete and give you a tour. Our lower levels are certainly going to be a sight to see. It's the least I can do given all the help and new teachers you've supplied me with."

"You've been giving the mutants in my safe house jobs. If anything, I'm the one who should be thanking you. I should also thank you for being so understanding of my situation with Erik. I know you two have not been on the best of terms, yet you have shown me incredible kindness."

"Charles, we should be going, soon, if we want to make it back to the school before midnight," Hank reminded the telepath.

"I hadn't noticed the time. Thank you for the coffee, Stevie, and be expecting a call before too long regarding a tour of the school and a showcase of Hank's abilities."

"I'll be anxiously awaiting said call."

* * *

Erik announced his arrival in his typical fashion – the clacking of Stevie's newton's cradle. Once she heard that, the door opened as Erik let himself in.

She rushed over to him and greeted him with a kiss. "I hope you don't mind that I ordered takeout; I didn't feel like cooking."

"I actually prefer that because now that is one less thing to distract you from me."

They took a few moments to take in each other's appearances. Stevie noticed that Erik hadn't shaved in a few days and he looked completely worn out from whatever work he was doing. He looked thinner, too. She hoped this was simply due to being too busy for meals, rather than meals being unavailable.

Erik, on the other hand, noticed that Stevie looked considerably better than she had the last time they were together. She had been sleeping well knowing that she and Erik were making things work and she forced herself not to run herself into the ground with work. She was also now visibly pregnant. "I hate leaving you."

"I have friends and family – I'm not alone." This much was true: none of the people in Stevie's life allowed her much time to herself. Even so, she still felt as if there was a gaping hole that needed to be filled.

"That doesn't mean that I shouldn't be here."

"October isn't that far away," she reminded him. "Besides, you're here now and I'm not going to waste another second discussing what we've already decided. I am going to spend every spare second with you this week." She wrapped her arms around him, happy that she could finally touch him, rather than only hear his voice over the phone. "Charles gives us his congratulations, by the way."

"You've been in contact with Charles?" he asked apprehensively. "Please tell me that it was a social visit and not one out of necessity."

"Very much a social visit. I've been sending mutants his way so he can open the school as soon as possible. Our child also has a place reserved there, apparently. I haven't been in contact with Kennedy, though. He's been very busy planning his campaign with elections coming before too long."

"Let's just hope that he's reelected so the next commission goes well."

Stevie bit her lip, wondering if Erik should know something Dianna had told her. "The CIA has been looking into you and the Brotherhood, again. I'm assuming this is due to your activities and I'm not going to tell you to stop them, but be careful. They have a mutant division again. You have the added disadvantage of the fact that Dianna is part of that division – she never liked you."

"I can handle the CIA and I can handle Dianna despite her distaste for me so long as you don't develop that same distaste for me. The CIA is going to find that Magneto is not going to be found very easily."

She sighed, sinking into the couch. "I really wish we had something apart from work to talk about, but it seems that's all either of us do."

"There are plenty of things we could discuss," he said playfully. "We could discuss the intricacies of human nature, the causes of the cold war, or perhaps you are in the mood to exchange opinions on the works of baroque composers. We can do absolutely anything you want for an entire week."

"All of those sound better than work," she replied seriously. "I actually have an appointment tomorrow and was hoping you would come."

His eyebrows rose in surprise. "I hadn't realized. Yes, I would definitely like to come."

"It's with a specialist," she began carefully. "He's going to be using something called ultrasound to look for, um, anomalies."

He sat up from the couch quickly. "What do you mean 'anomalies'?"

"Something slightly unusual has come up and I wanted to be sure nothing was wrong. My doctor didn't appear concerned," she said, trying to keep him calm.

His entire body was stiff. "This is why I need to be here."

"There's nothing either of us can do until the appointment, which is early, so we need to actually sleep tonight."

* * *

Stevie was surprised to find that the doctor she was seeing was actually pleasant – a refreshing change from her usual. However, he didn't believe in wasting time with unnecessary discussion so within moments Stevie was swept into an examination room, leaving Erik at the reception desk looking incredibly confused.

"I see nothing wrong: all the extremities are developed as they should be, the spine looks fine, and there are no other visible defects to suggest you should be anxious. I understand why you've worried, but all I can recommend is that you wait."

Stevie did feel slightly more at ease knowing that some sort of expert had actually bothered to examine her, but the anxiety still simmered in the back of her mind. This anxiety did not improve when she and Erik returned home to see Mystique and Azazel waiting for them.

"Magneto," the red mutant said urgently. "There have been some setbacks that we need to discuss."

"I'll leave you to discuss it, then," Stevie said with an understanding smile as she stepped into the house, with Raven in step behind her.

"So this is why Erik is so especially eager to be in contact with you. Ever since his last visit he's been acting differently, distracted on all of our missions." Stevie couldn't read the other woman's face very well to see how she felt about the situation.

"I imagine this would be the reason," Stevie replied quietly. "I apologize if it's been causing problems for you and the others."

For the first time since Stevie had met Raven, the other woman gave Stevie a look that wasn't angry or resentful but instead, sympathetic. "So you really do believe every word that you say about mutants, that you aren't afraid of us, respect us." Stevie nodded in response, not sure how else she could reply. "I'm sorry."

"There's for you to apologize for, Raven."

"I'm sorry that we've had these setbacks. Erik won't be able to come back for a while," she said quietly. "Angel has gone missing."

Stevie felt her throat tighten. She felt terrible that her anguish wasn't over Angel's disappearance, but over the fact that Erik would have to leave. "How long will he be gone?" she asked.

"Hopefully, our timeline hasn't been changed much. We're still going to try for October, but it's looking like we won't be finished until the very end of the month."

"It's fine," Stevie said. "I just need to ask you one favor." Mystique nodded to show she was paying attention. "Please make sure he comes back."

"Of course," Mystique replied sincerely. "I promise that nothing is going to happen to Erik."

Though the two women could never have been considered friends, Raven pulled Stevie into a hug in an attempt to comfort the shorter woman. "He has to leave in the morning," the blue woman informed Stevie. "Could you arrange for me and Azazel to stay a night in the other house?"

Stevie nodded. "I'll call Allegra right now."

Mystique went to meet Azazel while Stevie dialed the number, hands shaking.

Neither Stevie nor Erik slept that night and once the clock read four, Stevie gave up trying, going downstairs to make coffee for them. They sat together in silence as the sun rose, filling Stevie's kitchen with a pale, grey light.

It was only early June. She would have to wait until October.

Then, one of the only happy parts of her weekend happened. "Erik."

He looked up and saw tears on her face, immediately assuming it was because he would be gone in a few hours. "My dear, I am sorry, but I must do this if we are to finish on time."

"It's not that." She walked over to him and placed his hand on her to feel what she felt.

"It's moving," he said, an almost mystified expression on his face.

* * *

Months had passed since Erik's absence – it was September, now.

The phone rang and Stevie picked it up to hear Jeremy on the other end, which wasn't entirely unusual as he was acting as a proxy for her back at Carson Technologies. What was so unusual was the babbling she heard on the other end. "Jeremy, what's going on? You are completely incoherent right now."

She heard him breathing on the other end, trying to calm down. "Stevie, do you remember that building I told you about that Trask was associated with?"

"Yes, of course."

"I just found what he's using it for."


	12. Chapter 12

Stevie opened her front door to let Jeremy in, practically sprinting to her kitchen table. The poor man was a wreck: paler than usual, and his acid-green veins appeared to be glowing and pulsing. "What is going on?" she asked quietly. If Jeremy didn't feel as if he could say it over the phone, it must be worse than she had imagined.

"It's a research facility," he choked out, looking as if he may vomit.

"What kind of research facility?" She already knew the answer to her question, but she had to hear it said out loud.

"They research mutants there. Experiment on them until they die, then perform sick autopsies." He tossed her a manila folder.

She opened it and saw the 'research' that they had been doing first hand. The poor mutants in the pictures looked as if they had been tortured. Many had eyes missing from the photos and scars running all over their bodies, though Stevie could not tell whether or not they were post mortem. One of the mutants even had entire pieces of their skin removed. Then she turned to the most horrifying of all the images: Angel's autopsy photo. "Oh, God, it's Angel," she whispered. She hadn't 'disappeared', she had been murdered. "Jeremy, we have to be very careful with this information – make sure it gets to the right people at the right time." He nodded weakly, barely stomaching the images he had seen. "We wait until Erik gets back, then I'm bringing these to Kennedy directly so we can get the CIA or FBI involved."

"That is only a small portion of what they've done in the past year. The research began last November, around the time the commissions were taking place."

"What have I done?" she whispered. Was it possible that she had been a catalyst in this? Had she been the final push Trask needed to begin these atrocities? "I wanted something that could put Trask away, but I didn't think it would be like this." Genocide had begun.

Nevertheless, the evidence Jeremy had gathered was more than enough to get a warrant to search Trask's facility. "How did you get this?" she asked.

He had had his head in between his knees up until then, when he looked up at her, a dead look in his eyes. "You don't want to know the things I had to do to get those files."

"I'm going to keep them here, keep them safe. No matter where I go, I will have them on my person because nobody is going to get their hands on these. This is the end of Trask."

"It had better be," Jeremy said darkly. "That man deserves much worse than prison and the end of his company."

"I know. I just need time to prepare and obviously right now is not the best time to be strolling to the White House, anyway. Are you going to be okay?" she asked.

He nodded. "Just don't let Allegra see those."

Stevie was about to answer when they heard the phone ring, causing them both to jump. Stevie went to answer it. "Hello?"

"Stevie, I have the best news! The school is finally finished and you need to see it this afternoon. I've already sent Hank with a car to pick you up."

"That's great, Charles," she replied hollowly. She _was _happy that the school had been completed, but it was impossible to be excited after the photos she had seen.

"Something's wrong." Of course Charles would pick up on it immediately. Stevie didn't know why she had expected anything less.

"Yes. I'll explain later, but I am so happy for you and so happy the school will be accepting students, soon."

"Does it have something to do with Erik?" She could hear in his voice that he desperately hoped the other mutant was not involved.

"No. Not really, at least. It has to do with all of us, but mostly me."

* * *

Once she arrived at the school, she and Charles attempted to put on a show of normalcy as he introduced her to two of the teachers she hadn't met, yet. "Stevie, these two men are Alex Summers and Sean Cassidy, though you are likely somewhat familiar with them – at least by their other names."

"So these two are Havok and Banshee?" she asked, which earned her two very confused looks. "I'm sorry. I should introduce myself; my name is Stevie Carson and I own a safe house for mutants. I have also been in contact with Erik Lehnsherr and Charles a great deal. They've both told me a lot about you."

Summers immediately gave her a distrustful look. "What were you doing with Erik?" Sean just looked terrified and didn't say anything.

"He and I worked together to try and create a pro-mutant policy in the government, here. Needless to say, we were unsuccessful. However, we worked well together and the last time we saw each other, Erik and I parted on very friendly terms."

"There is no need to be wary, Alex. Stevie and I have also been in contact for a while and I can guarantee you that she has nothing but pure intentions. In fact, she is the reason we were able to open this early because she sent so many mutants our way to help us with the school."

The tension in the room lightened a little, especially when Stevie saw Hank. "Your mutation is amazing," she breathed. "The intelligence paired with your physical abilities – practical perfection," she said with a smile. Hank looked like a completely different person – a more powerful and commanding presence than what she usually witnessed. "Care to demonstrate?" Seeing Hank accept his abilities gave Stevie her first genuine smile of the day, though it did not erase what she had seen that morning. But even Stevie had to admit it was difficult not to laugh at his antics while dangling from the chandelier.

Charles had been right: the school was unbelievable. The upper levels were beautifully restored for both classroom and dorm use, but what really made Stevie's heard skip a beat were the lower levels. She couldn't help but drop her jaw in wonder.

"Training facilities, the jet, the labs – they're all kept underground," Hank told her proudly. "But you have to see the best part. Come meet Cerebro."

The spherical room made Stevie feel very small and insignificant, especially when Hank informed her that Charles could use Cerebro to touch every mind in the world. "Erik's description did not do Cerebro justice," she informed them all. Everything at Charles' mansion was nothing short of awe-inspiring.

"Why did Erik tell you about all this stuff?" Alex asked. "It couldn't have all been necessary for your work together."

Stevie's mouth opened and closed as she tried to figure out exactly what she should say, but Hank – unwittingly, of course – made that decision for her. "Well isn't it obvious?"

"What do you mean, obvious?" Alex was now eyeing her up and down.

"Well," Hank gestured towards her, clearly emphasizing the fact that she was pregnant.

"Wait, so she and Erik…"

"Yes, Erik and I were sleeping together and I am now pregnant," Stevie announced irritably. "Now that my personal life has been put on display, Charles and I have things to discuss."

She stepped into Charles' office, flushed with embarrassment. "I'm sorry about Hank," he said.

"He didn't mean anything by it," she sighed. "So you can tell him no harm was done and I'm not mad."

"I hate to rush into things but the curiosity has been killing me. What happened to frighten you so much, this morning? Should I just find it myself?"

She shook her head. "I think, in this case, you should know as few details as possible, Charles – at least for the time being. I had a mutant I work with do his own personal investigation into Trask. Up until now, he hadn't found anything incriminating. But today he showed me something," she murmured.

"You look like you're going to be sick," he said with concern.

"I may or may not have been the catalyst to some plans that Trask has begun to execute. He began doing horrible things just after the first time the commission met. All I will say about what we found is that Trask is a much sicker man than I ever imagined. As soon as Erik is back, he and I are going to put a stop to it; we cannot allow those inhuman activities to continue."

"Well, that's a good thing, isn't it? You wanted to take down Trask, didn't you?"

"Not like this; I never visualized it like this."

"I'm sorry, my dear. Are you sure you don't want me to see it?"

"No. Believe me Charles: you don't _want_ to see it. But so long as Trask is out there, not in prison, you, the other staff here, and your students will not be safe. Keep them close until this matter is taken care of."

He nodded, understanding how serious Stevie was and beginning to understand the magnitude of what she had seen. "Well, I had better get you home and you should expect to see me soon, once your baby is born. I'm going to want to see it."

"Erik is going to be incredibly irked you saw it before him."

"Erik is always angry," Charles replied lightly. "What's one more thing to piss him off? Besides, I have the feeling he'll be too distracted to care." He paused before leading her out the door to the car. "You need to be very careful, Stevie. If Trask is capable of such horrific things, he may be capable of more."

"Up until today, I was never personally afraid of Trask, only afraid of what he would do to mutants. Now, I never want to be in the same room as him again. And don't worry Charles. I'll be careful. It's just a waiting game until Erik comes back. Then everything will be taken care of."

* * *

It was late and Erik was holed up in some cheap, dilapidated motel in East Berlin, hoping that Azazel would return soon, bearing good news with him. The sooner Erik could return to New York, the happier he would be.

The door opened and it was Raven that greeted him, not Azazel. He was about to tell her to leave so he could put the finishing touches on their plans for the next few weeks, but what she said immediately put his irritation to rest. "You have a phone call at the front desk," she informed him. "Congratulations."

Erik rushed to the front desk as quickly as possible, only just short of running. "Stevie?"

"The very same," she replied happily. "Charles gave me the number, by the way. It really is very useful having a telepath for a friend."

"Is everything alright? No complications?"

"Everything is fine," she assured him. "Your daughter is fine."

"My daughter," he replied numbly.

"She certainly does take after you. I think the nurses almost dropped her when they saw she has green hair. If I'm not mistaken, she looks quite a bit like you, apart from the hair, of course."

"She has green hair?" he laughed.

"Yes and I think that it is a lovely shade of green, too. The nurses thought I was crazy when I wasn't concerned about it. She's so beautiful, Erik."

"I just need three weeks," he said sadly. "Then I can be there."

"Don't keep Vera waiting too long," she reminded him.

"Vera."

"I thought it had a nice ring to it. Vera Lehnsherr."

"It does sound very nice," he replied quietly. "I can't wait to meet her."

"I also have one other piece of good news." He could hear the very palpable change in her voice; they had definitely shifted to a much darker topic. "We finally have something to take down Trask."

Erik took a moment to absorb how profound and life-altering that statement was. "What is it?"

"I think you need to see it first hand," she said gravely. "But it is more than enough for him to be locked away for the rest of his life. He may even receive the death penalty."

"It's that bad?" he asked. He knew Trask had been _planning _the genocide of mutants but he had no idea that Trask had committed any atrocities, yet.

"Yes, now get back to work so you can see me and Vera and we can finally be rid of Trask."

* * *

The time had finally come for Erik. After months away from New York on mission after mission, he would finally be home for a good long while. Mystique, Azazel, Emma and Riptide would be staying in the safe house. Hours of flying and driving finally brought him to Stevie's front yard, which was very different from the one in his memory.

There were cops everywhere, buzzing in and out of the house. Erik stepped out of the car, feeling as if his legs may collapse under him, in a daze. He was suddenly approached by Dianna, who put her hands on his shoulders. "You can't go in there, Erik."

Her eyes were red and for the first time since they had met, Erik did not see a look of hatred, dislike or contempt on her face. Only sadness and pity. "What's going on?" he demanded, feeling a rage slowly building up inside of him.

"They found Stevie dead a couple days ago, Erik."

After that, Erik found it completely impossible to maintain his composure, as much as he had tried. All the cars within a two block radius began shaking, the ones closer to him caving in on themselves. Street lamps began swaying back and forth as if they were blades of glass. Every metal object began flying around as Erik felt his greatest loss since the death of his mother. It had not been that long since they had spoken with each other.

"Erik, you need to calm down. There are humans here," Dianna said firmly, as she tried desperately to force the levitating objects to the ground with her own abilities.

After a few moments, Erik finally found some semblance of control, though it took every ounce of effort to maintain that control. "What happened?" It was even more difficult for him to speak, his mouth completely dry.

"Her neighbor called the police, saying someone had broken into Stevie's house but by the time they got there…" A few tears rolled down Dianna's face for her older sister. "The police are probably going to rule it as a robbery gone wrong," she said, anger in her voice. "A few valuables were stolen, but an actual thief could take one look inside her house and know they weren't going to get much. She rarely wore jewelry; she only had one necklace and two pairs of earrings, neither of which were really worth anything. You know how Stevie was." Erik _did _know. Stevie's house had been very Spartan.

"Jeremy had apparently given her documents which would incriminate Trask but they weren't found anywhere in the house," Dianna explained, speaking almost robotically.

"Trask did this," Erik growled.

"We have no evidence," she replied sadly. "We all know it was him but all we have is one piece of circumstantial evidence: the missing documents. Jeremy said he wouldn't be able to get copies of any documents like those again; Trask knows we've uncovered them, now. We don't have anything."

Erik had only one ray of light in all of this that he was going to have to cling to in order to keep his sanity. "Where is Vera?"

The crushed look on Dianna's face told him that the news wouldn't be good. "We don't know. She was missing from the house when police got there."

Erik didn't even want to imagine what would happen to Vera in the hands of Trask. Stevie's death served a purpose for Trask, but what could Trask possibly want with his daughter? He had nothing now. In one fell swoop, Trask had taken everything from him; but Trask would pay for what he did – Erik would ensure that, one way or another.


	13. Chapter 13

Erik had imagined himself sitting in a police station one day, but he had never imagined he wouldn't be sitting there for something that he had done. Everything seemed distorted somehow - as if in a dream.

"Mr. Lehnsherr." Erik looked up to see a young officer standing across the table from him. "I've been standing here for five minutes."

Erik sat up, forcing himself to concentrate. "I apologize," he replied stiffly.

"You said you were staying in Berlin for the past month?" Erik nodded. "Well, we don't have any flight records for you _or _any records of you staying in a hotel."

"The probable reason for your lack of records on my hotel is that you likely only looked at the accommodations offered in West Berlin. Am I correct?" The young officer began stuttering an answer. "I suppose I should have informed you that I was staying in East Berlin. As far as the lack of flight records are concerned, that is because I didn't fly."

"We don't have records for any type of travel you've taken from New York to Europe."

"I used a more private mode of transportation." Erik was becoming tired of explaining himself. He had much better things to be doing than communicating with the police: namely, hunting down Trask.

The officer straightened himself. "Look, Mr. Lehnsherr, I've looked into you. I know that you're a person of interest for the CIA, FBI and a dozen other national and international agencies. You've been living under the radar for decades now."

"Have you brought me here to threaten me, then?" Erik asked, clearly without any fear. "I must inform you that, as of a few days ago, there is nothing you can threaten me with."

The officer – whose last name, Erik noticed, was Brady – sighed and sat down in front of Erik, appearing as if he did truly feel sympathy for the man in front of him. "No, I'm not here to threaten you, but I want answers. My job is to find out what happened to Ms. Carson, not turn you in for whatever they want you for. Be straight with me."

"Officer Brady, I have been completely honest with you since stepping in. I was staying in East Berlin up until now and I have not been using public transportation."

"I suppose you use public transportation to avoid being apprehended?"

Erik shook his head and the barest ghost of a smile appeared on his face. "I use my own private transportation because it is faster, cheaper, and far more convenient." Why would he buy a plane ticket when he had Azazel at his disposal? "Are you considering me a suspect in this?"

Brady shook his head. "We went through your bag and found a number of different types of currency. That, to me, would suggest that you have been traveling extensively, which lines up with what you've told us. Your activities are suspicious, just not where this particular case is concerned." He pulled out a pad of paper. "Let's start this in earnest now. What was the nature of your relationship with Ms. Carson?"

"We had a sexual relationship," he replied coolly, slipping into a façade of composure.

Brady looked surprised at how direct Erik was. "And you are the father of the missing infant?"

"As far as I am aware," Erik replied. "I believe my name is on the birth certificate."

"Did you and Ms. Carson have any disagreements over the birth of your child? You weren't married."

"Stevie and I had no disagreements as far as Vera was concerned. I haven't been in New York often enough or long enough to have any real disagreements with her. We weren't married, but I didn't foresee any problems arising from that in the near future. I was planning on living with her when I returned." He suddenly realized something very important about Officer Brady. "You think this was premeditated murder, don't you? Not a robbery gone wrong, like everyone else?"

Brady looked at Erik apprehensively, as if he shouldn't be sharing the information he was going to give him. "It doesn't add up," he said simply. "If this were a robbery gone wrong, they wouldn't have taken your daughter, Mr. Lehnsherr. I've been told Ms. Carson had documents of a very sensitive nature inside the house with her. Can you elaborate on that?"

Erik looked away, angry he couldn't tell Brady much. "All I know is that those documents would have ruined Trask. Stevie didn't tell me what was in them, nor would you likely understand the contents of the documents. The vendetta between Stevie and Trask goes much deeper than simply being business competitors. He killed her; I have no doubts."

Brady nodded. "He's the only person with any strong motive to kill Ms. Carson, but we have no physical evidence apart from the missing documents. I also have no idea why he would take your daughter. Part of the vendetta, maybe?"

"I may have an idea of why he would take her. But, again, you are not likely to understand."

"If you don't tell me these things, then I can't help you get justice for Stevie."

Erik looked at the officer coldly. "Justice?" he replied mockingly. "There will be no justice for her because the law never brings justice. Trask won. Even if I told you everything, it wouldn't help. You wouldn't believe what I said and you wouldn't be able to change anything."

"What about your daughter? She could still be alive."

"If she is then it is because Trask has some darker purpose for her." He stood. "As I am not a suspect, I would like to leave."

Brady nodded. "I wasn't supposed to have you here, anyway. The department isn't going to label this case as a premeditated murder case so the case will likely be labeled as unsolved, officially at least. I'm sorry, Mr. Lehnsherr."

Officer Brady did seem genuinely sorry that Stevie's death was left like this. But Brady's pity and sadness would do Erik no good.

* * *

Erik didn't speak at Stevie's funeral. Various important figures spoke. Allegra and Dianna did. Even Charles spoke, though he and Erik never said a word to each other. Not him. He stared at her headstone: Stephanie Margaret Carson, 1932 – 1963. She had only been thirty-one. Very few of those who attended the private funeral even knew who he was, so there was no point in him speaking. Speaking about her death did not change things.

After the funeral, he was going to leave and plan his justice for Stevie when he was approached by Kennedy, of all people. "Stevie was one special woman, Erik."

Erik nodded. "I am very aware."

"The police have said that they have no suspects – at least, that's what the news stations are all saying. I'm guessing that you have suspects, given that you have a lot more resources at your disposal than the police."

"It was Trask," he replied darkly. "We'll know for sure tonight when we go back to the house. Allegra has volunteered to investigate the crime scene."

"It's a shame things ended this way. The mutant community has suffered a great loss."

"She may have been human, but she did more for mutants than most of our species could ever dream of doing. I'm going to make sure she gets her justice."

Kennedy eyed Erik up and down. "Officially, I'm forced to disagree with you. But unofficially, I want you to get that son of a bitch. Just make sure it doesn't get associated with mutants."

After stepping out of Allegra's car – not the black Cadillac he had become accustomed to riding in – he stared at the house, the graveyard.

Every step he took inside was like succumbing to the reality of her death, but he, Allegra and Jeremy quickly made their way to Stevie's bedroom, where she had been killed. Every memory from every space of the house ran through his head, inundating him.

Allegra appeared apprehensive as she walked around the room, touching each and every object. "I'm not seeing anything. They must not have touched or used anything in the room. I just see the documents sitting on her dresser and then being taken."

"Can't you see the history of a space – the room?" Erik asked.

"I've never been able to do that before. I usually have to make physical contact."

Erik's eyes wandered to Jeremy. "What if he helped you? He can enhance your abilities."

Jeremy nodded and walked over to Allegra, holding her hand. "Try now."

Allegra saw everything.

_Stevie heard something downstairs, it sounded like a couple of people had broken in. She scooped the documents off her dresser and shoved them under her sheets, hoping they would remain unfound. Then, she stood in front of Vera's crib, preparing herself for what may come next while the cat hid itself somewhere._

_She hadn't expected to see Trask._

"_I'm going to need those documents back, Ms. Carson." He had two large men with him, both toting formidable guns._

_Stevie shook her head adamantly. "No."_

"_We're going to find them anyway," he informed her. "I wasn't asking for them."_

_One of the men began to tear the room apart while the other grabbed Stevie by the arms and held her there._

_Before long, Trask had the documents in his hand. "I really am sorry for what is going to come next. You came too close this time, Ms. Carson. I see now that I will always have to live with the fear that you will put an end to my research and expose my facilities. I can't let that happen."_

_The man who had been holding Stevie in place pointed his gun at her head. "Trask, you really are an inhuman bastard," she spat._

"_It's all part of the plan, I'm afraid. I also know that Mr. Lehnsherr will find out about my actions here, tonight. I have plans for him, as well. I wish it didn't have to come to this, Stevie."_

_Her eyes went wide, knowing that Erik was being dragged into this, before the gun went off, causing Stevie's baby to cry and drawing Trask's attention to the crib. "So she's a mutant." The green hair was a dead giveaway. _

"_Should we bring her to one of the research facilities, Mr. Trask?"_

_Trask shook his head. "Mutant abilities usually don't appear until the onset of puberty. Studying her cells will do me no good if I don't know what her abilities will be. I suppose I'm just going to have to find a safe place to keep her until then." _

_Trask and the men left the room, taking the baby with them._

Allegra returned to the present. "He killed her," she stuttered, tears rolling down her face.

"That's all I need to hear," Erik said, putting on his jacket and preparing to leave.

"Erik," Allegra mumbled. "Vera is alive."

Erik froze. "In a research facility?" he asked quietly.

Allegra shook her head. "Trask said he was going to keep her 'somewhere safe'. He said he couldn't research her until her abilities manifested. Erik, we have to get her back."

Erik's jaw hardened. "I will find her. I'm going to torture it out of Trask."

"You need to know something else. Trask said that he had plans for you – I don't know what he meant – but you can't let anything happen to you, Erik."

"I'll enlist Charles' help. He would not help me to kill Trask, but he would help me find Vera." Erik was no longer listening to Allegra. He was already forming a plan in his mind.

As he was exiting Stevie's room he noticed a picture on her dresser, where the documents had also been. It was a picture of Stevie holding Vera in the hospital which caused his gut to wrench in agony. Taking a moment to soak in the image, he carefully tucked it into an inside pocket in his jacket. He also pulled the metal balls off of her newton's cradle in the living room. It seemed only fitting he would use those to exact his revenge.

Erik was leaving the house when he ran headfirst into Mystique. "I don't care what you have to say to me Raven; I have more important things to do."

"There's an assassination plan for Kennedy. You said it was important that he was reelected and the plan is to shoot him while he's in Dallas. That's only a few days away."

"Can't any of you handle it? Emma could control their minds. You could distract the assassin. There are any number of things you could do."

"We don't know where he's going to be shooting from, or who he is and you're the only person I know who can stop a bullet. Are there any time restraints for your other plans?"

Trask had said he would keep Vera safe, whereas Kennedy's life hung in the balance. The decision shouldn't have been as hard for him as it was: he had always told himself that the mutant cause was to be held above everything. In that moment, though, he almost chose to rescue Vera – the president be damned.

"I want to leave Dallas the very moment I'm done," he snapped. "Azazel is going to have to take me to Charles."

"Charles?"

"Yes, Charles. I'm going to fly to Dallas tomorrow and you're going to find Azazel – wherever the fuck he is – and have him teleport to Dallas."

"I understand that you want to kill Trask, but what is so urgent about it? He'll be just as dead in a week as he would be tomorrow."

Erik pulled Mystique very close to him. "My daughter is still alive and I'm going to find her. Once I've saved Kennedy, nothing else is going to stand in my way. I don't care if the Soviets intend to drop all of their bombs on the United States tomorrow; nothing will prevent me from finding her.

* * *

Erik was standing in the grassy knoll: waiting for bullets. He could feel metal everywhere, unable to tell where the gun was, but he would detect the bullets before they could make contact with Kennedy. Easy.

Shots were fired. Erik was redirecting one of the bullets just as he felt something hit him, preventing him from finishing the job. He was tackled to the ground, plastic handcuffs were slapped on him and he was quickly taken from the scene, knowing that Kennedy was now dead.

The rest passed in a blur. An anonymous tipoff had informed the FBI that Erik would be there that day. Erik was tried in secret, sent to live in the Pentagon's special concrete prison.

Trask had really won this time and Erik had failed more completely than he ever had before. Erik had not even been allowed any of his personal effects in the prison with him, including his photograph.

That night, as Erik lay sleepless on his mattress, he stared at the opposite side of the room. There, he saw Stevie. He knew it wasn't real, but he saw her nonetheless. She stared back at him sadly. "We tried," she whispered.

He would surely slip into madness if this happened every night. If he wasn't mad already.

The entire night Erik was haunted by hallucinations of Stevie wherever he turned but the next morning failed to bring any sort of relief to the mutant. The white walls of his prison did nothing to prevent his descent into madness and he was informed of how truly hopeless his situation was.

"Lehnsherr, you have visitors."

His eyes shot up to see the guards maneuvering two people into his cell: Bobby Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy. Why were they here?

The look of pure fury on Bobby's face had no effect on Erik – he was absolutely listless. Nothing mattered to him anymore; it was all over. "Did you kill my brother?" he asked, clearly trying not to lose his composure.

The guards had left the room to give them privacy, which allowed Erik to speak freely. "No. I was trying to save him. I had nothing to gain from his death."

Bobby's face contorted with pain. "He's telling the truth. So you're telling me that if the FBI had come only moments later, my brother would still be alive right now?"

Erik nodded. "And now I'll likely be in this prison for the rest of my life, the woman I love is dead, and I will never see my daughter. Trask has certainly exceeded all expectations." His life – everything that he had ever worked for – had come to an end.

"I'm sorry there's nothing I can do," Bobby replied quietly. "I can't just stroll in and tell them to overturn the trial because I know you're telling the truth."

Erik nodded. He understood.

* * *

Trask waited in his office for two very special guests that evening. Now that his plan had fallen into place, exactly as he had detailed it, he could put the final piece in place. "Mr. and Mrs. Dane," he greeted them warmly. "Please come in. I'm told that you've been considering adopting a child."

Mrs. Dane nodded. "We've been meaning to, but we just don't have the money right now."

"I heard about your problem and my heard bled for you," Trask said. "So I've made a more private arrangement." He gestured to a bassinette in the corner. "She's sleeping right now, but the baby in there just lost her mother a few weeks ago and now her father is in jail. I was good friends her mother so I wanted to ensure that her daughter went to a loving home, not just anyone who could pay adoption fees. I was wondering if you would be interested in a deal?"

"Anything," Mr. Dane replied.

"I'm going to have a birth certificate made up stating that she is biologically your daughter. You can name her and it will be as if she was yours from birth. I will give you plenty of money to ensure that you live comfortably and can give her a good life. I only have one favor to ask in return: if something strange happens and it appears that she caused it, please let me know immediately."

"What do you mean something strange?"

"Well, you see," Trask began. "There is another reason why I wanted to arrange a private adoption. I just don't think that she would be adopted otherwise. See for yourselves."

The couple cautiously walked over to the bassinette and started at the sight. "She has green hair," Mrs. Dane gasped.

"Yes. Nothing else appears to be wrong with her, but if something strange happens, I would like to know."

"Of course," Mrs. Dane replied, thinking that Trask must be referring to medical issues.

"You really are such kind people," he said with a smile. "I would adopt her myself, but that would hardly be fair, given how little time I spend at home. What would you like to name your new daughter?" he asked.

"Lorna. Lorna Dane."

**A/N: In case you hadn't guessed already, the mutant whose background story I have tweaked a little is Polaris. I wish she would be in some of the upcoming Marvel films but it doesn't look like that's going to happen :(**

**I'm going to be taking a break until Days of Future Past comes out because I think I should watch it again given that the next important events involving Erik in the timeline don't occur until the movie and I want to do those events justice. So, sorry for the break, but I'll be back with another chapter before too long :)**


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